As the torch is passed in women’s slopestyle, the future is ‘pretty sick’

ZHANGJIAKOU, China - They imagined this day for four irritating years, a chance to strike through the memory of a wind-haunted debacle in South Korea, and reintroduce Olympic women’s slopestyle snowboarding. So when it ended with the shredding equivalent of a walk-off victory - Zoi Sadowski-Synnott snatching gold with a resounding final ride of the competition - it looked as if the entire sport celebrated the feat.

Sadowski-Synnott lifted her hands to the sky, knowing the judges could not deny her. Then she fell backward into the snow at Genting Snow Park as two competitors, Julia Marino and Tess Coady, piled atop her. It didn’t matter to Marino that the New Zealander’s exploits had bumped her to second place. It didn’t matter to Coady that she was partying with the two women who upstaged her. The color of their medals yielded to the importance of the impression they all made.

“Oh, that’s pretty sick,” Sadowski-Synnott said of the moment after she earned New Zealand’s first Winter Olympics gold. “Honestly, that was pretty special. It’s been a pretty crazy four years. You know going in what it’s going to take to be on the top of the podium, but I kind of owe it all to the other girls for pushing me, and I think [women’s slopestyle] is going in the right direction. It’s not really slowing down.”

In 2018, vicious weather wrecked the event and made the competitors feel like the International Ski Federation had ignored their safety to stay on schedule. Survival was reward enough on that day in PyeongChang. I remember Dutch snowboarder Cheryl Maas, as fearless as it gets, admitting she was so worried about the whipping wind during a practice run that she said to herself: “Please, put me down softly. I don’t really believe in God, but I am praying to someone up there. Don’t put me in a hospital.”

On a frigid yet sunny Sunday morning here, the 20-year-old Sadowski-Synnott helped signal a new era for the sport. Jamie Anderson, the two-time gold medalist, is no longer the only woman to win gold in the nascent Olympic event. Anderson finished ninth and watched three women ages 20, 21 and 24 step onto the medal stand.

At 31, Anderson is far from old. But an influential young clique is propelling slopestyle, and the talent has elevated every competitor, including the veteran champion. Anderson didn’t show it on this day, falling on two of her three runs and being left to play the role of graceful, torch-passing legend. Still, the young medalists credited Anderson’s example of consistent excellence as being an inspiration for what happened Sunday, and for that, Anderson was grateful. Now, she must figure out how to keep competing with the rapid evolution.

Sadowski-Synnott posted a 92.88 score on her dramatic final run, surging ahead of Marino’s 87.68. Coady was third at 84.15. The top five finishers scored above 80. During the calamitous final four years ago, Anderson was the lone competitor to surpass that mark. Now, on a day in which the most accomplished figure in the sport wasn’t a factor, the rest of the cast proved it can carry the show.

In her jubilation, Sadowski-Synnott misspoke when she said, “I think the ceiling is definitely the limit with snowboarding.” But we should understand her the same as we got it when Michael Jordan declared, “The ceiling is the roof.” Clearly, there is greatness in the misrepresentation of ceilings.

Marino and many others look at Sadowski-Synnott as the sport’s new defining athlete. The Kiwi sensation knew what she needed to do on her third and final run to win. It was basically the same routine that she used to capture the X Games crown. She finished her stunning ride to gold by unleashing her signature moves, which have redefined the possibilities for women in slopestyle: a double cork 1080, followed by a backside 1080. In regular people talk, that’s a lot of mind-boggling triple-spinnin’ without any trippin’. At the end, she was so precise she could have landed her snowboard on a penny.

“I just made sure that I took everything I had inside of me to put it down,” Sadowski-Synnott said. “I don’t think it would mean as much if I had landed that on the first run. I’m in disbelief.”

Marino marveled at her friend and competitor. In any situation, a 92.88 score would’ve been something to savor. But with the gold medal on the line and the whole snow park aware, Sadowski-Synnott summoned a degree of flair that long will be remembered. She had to do it because the competition challenged her.

“She stomped that to, like, the last line,” Marino marveled. “It sounds like she cracked the landing pretty much with that. I was overcome with happiness. She’s doing tricks that other girls are like, ‘Wow, I think I can do that, too.’ She’s leading the charge with it.”

Women’s slopestyle has a new Olympic standard, and she’s a 20-year-old, limits-pushing, evolved version of Anderson. In a single morning, Sadowski-Synnott disrupted American snowboarding dominance and led a group that vanquished the sport’s disappointment of four years ago.

This, the athletes will tell you, is women’s slopestyle. It hasn’t peaked, either. As snowboarding continues the fight for enhanced relevance at the Winter Games, slopestyle will try to position itself for more respect.

“It was kind of exactly what this sport needed,” Sadowski-Synnott said of Sunday’s performance. “The girls have worked really hard over the past four years, and this is what it should have been today. We all kind of put down our best tricks linked together in a slope run, which isn’t easy to do at all. We’re kind of learning day by day what we’re capable of. We’re capable of a lot.”

The ceiling is whatever they imagine it to be.