New Zealand skier Nico Porteous has overcome freezing conditions and strong winds to win gold in a dominating performance in the halfpipe final at the Beijing Winter Olympics.
The 20-year-old world and X Games champion was the hot favourite going into the final, given he is the only skier able to land back-to-back 1620s (four and a half rotations) in the pipe.
It was a bitterly cold –25 degrees at the Genting Snow Park in Zhangjiakou, while a cross-wind created a wind tunnel in the pipe, making it difficult for the athletes to remain balanced in the air.
But Porteous refused to hold back. He went big on his first run, landing his back-to-back 1620s cleanly and finishing with an alley-oop (spinning uphill) 900.
It was the same run Porteous laid down in Aspen, Colorado last month to win X Games gold.
The judges rewarded him with a score of 93.00, giving him the top score at the end of the first round.
"Boom!" he exclaimed to the camera as the score came up on the big screen.
Trailing him were two-time defending gold medallist David Wise with 90.75, and PyeongChang silver medallist Alex Ferreira with 86.75.
But the American duo felt the pressure on their second run, with Ferreira unable to match his first round score and Wise crashing on his second trick.
The pressure was off Porteous, and he was able to throw away his second run after struggling for amplitude at the top of the pipe.
No one was able to overcome Porteous in the final round, with Wise and Ferreira's first run scores good enough for silver and bronze respectively.
Porteous crashed on his final run, but skied to the bottom where he was embraced by older brother Miguel.
It wasn't quite as successful a day for the other Porteous in the Olympic final.
The 22-year-old Miguel put down an impressive first run, albeit slightly lacking in amplitude.
He landed four double corks – back-to-back switch alley-oop 900s followed by back-to-back double cork 1260s.
His score of 63.50 was good enough for first place at the time. But he was unable to improve his score in the remainder of the competition, as he fell on his second run and lost control again on his final run to finish 11th.
The gold medal is Nico Porteous' second Olympic medal, backing up his bronze in the same event four years ago.
He joins Zoi Sadowski-Synnott as the only Kiwis to have won more than one Winter Olympic medal.
The halfpipe final was the last event New Zealand athletes were participating in. Beijing will comfortably go down as the country's greatest ever Winter Olympics, with Porteous combining for three medals - two gold and a silver.
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