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X Games Gold for Young Kiwi Nico Porteous

Nico Porteous. TheBFD

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Great things have been happening overseas for some of our most talented Kiwis. A couple of weeks ago I discussed the awesome achievements of some of our Kiwi motor racing fraternity and this week it is time for some of our young snow-sports aficionados to take the limelight.

Nico Porteous, a Wanaka lad, started skiing at four years old and by the time he was only nine, was already getting into the demanding ‘freestyle’ discipline. At just fourteen, Nico became the youngest person in the world, and the only New Zealander, to land a ‘triple-cork 1440’, (four complete rotations (4 x 360 degrees = 1440 degrees) and three instances of being upside-down).

Just two years later, at the tender age of just sixteen, Nico competed in the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics where he became our youngest ever medalist after winning a bronze medal in the prestigious half-pipe competition.

Not one to sit on his laurels, Nico this week competed in the World X Games competition in Aspen, Colorado. Nico knew he had to pull off something big to take the win, and big was what he did.

Nico Porteous, Kiwi sking sensation. Photo: Redbull.

In Nico’s third run he became the first freeskier to ever land the combination of a Right Double 1620 straight into a Left Double 1620 in a halfpipe competition. That’s 4 1/2 spins one way then straight into another 4 1/2 spins the other way!

This catapaulted Nico into first place and earned him the gold medal, becoming the first New Zealander to win the Freeski Superpipe event at the X Games.

This is huge for Nico and bodes well for future Olympic medals, but to be fair, the X Games probably hold more cache for these young guns.

Fellow Kiwi snowboarder Zoi Sadowski-Synnott also had a great event bringing home a silver medal in the slopestyle event, to back up her gold from last year.

So we may be looking at a difficult ski season here in New Zealand this year, but at least we have some awesome young Kiwis to try and emulate when we’re on the slopes.

Maybe I should try lock down a 360 before I go for that 1620 though!

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