Zoi Sadowski-Synnott wins NZ's first ever Winter Olympic gold

Snowboarder Zoi Sadowski-Synnott has made history by becoming the first New Zealander to win a Winter Olympics gold medal after a stunning performance in the women's slopestyle final in Beijing.

The 20-year-old was unflappable on the Genting Snow Park slopes on Sunday afternoon, soaking up the pressure and stomping some huge jumps to win gold on her final run.

Sadowski-Synnott was guaranteed at least a silver when she dropped into her third and final run, but was only ever going to be satisfied with gold.

She navigated the rail section well before heading into the three jumps with it all on the line.

First came a 900 then back-to-back 1080s, the second absolutely enormous, touching down at the bottom of the hill and staying upright.

Her arms shot to the air, shocked with what she had just done.

In a brilliant moment of sportsmanship, Sadowski-Synnott was embraced by silver and bronze medallists Julia Marino and Tess Coady at the bottom of the hill, both ecstatic for the Kiwi.

Earlier in the competition, Sadowski-Synnott had taken the lead after the first run with a score of 84.51.

However, American Marino shot to the gold medal position on her second attempt with an impressive score of 87.68.

A fall on Sadowski-Synnott's second run meant she had it all to do in run three, while also having to nervously watch the competitors ahead of her try and knock her off the podium.

One of those included back-to-back defending champion Jamie Anderson. But it was not to be a three-peat, with Anderson falling on two of her runs and unable to land a strong enough run to challenge the podium places.

When Japanese rider Kokomo Murase fell trying an audacious 1260 on the final jump, Sadowski-Synnott was assured of either silver or gold. The rest is history.

Speaking after the medal ceremony, Sadowski-Synnott said she was in "complete disbelief".

"I can't believe it," she said.

"I knew I had to put it down and I knew I had it in me."

Sadowski-Synnott breaks New Zealand's 70-year gold medal duck at the Winter Olympics, while also becoming the first New Zealander to win more than one medal at the Winter Olympics, having also won bronze in big air at PyeongChang in 2018.

Prior to Sunday, Annelise Coberger's silver medal in slalom at Albertville 1992 was New Zealand's best result at at Winter Olympics.