'Freak accident' forces Porteous to withdraw from Winter Games

Nico Porteous has become familiar with setbacks.

As a medal-winning free skier, injuries are all part of the sport but in the build up to his competition return - his first time back in a event bib since the Beijing Winter Olympics where he won gold - the 21-year-old has been forCed to pull out of the Winter Games.

"Had a bit of a freak accident on the trampoline," said Porteous.

"I've hurt my tib and fib joint which is lucky it wasn't a knee joint, but it's taken a bit longer than expected."

But this minor setback may just be the makings of an even greater comeback. There's a bigger goal and it's the Millan Winter Olympics in 2026.

"There will be other opportunities and that's just something I have to keep my head up and work hard at trying to get back to health as fast as I can."

Porteous was headlining the heavy-hitting Oceania team for the Winter Games obsidian event next week.

A format like no other, obsidian will see invited teams made up of the best freeski and snowboard athletes representing Asia, Europe, the Americas and Oceania who will battle it out for bragging rights across custom built terrain park venues at Cardrona Alpine Resort and freeride terrain in the mountains around Wānaka.

Obsidian will be held within a five-day weather window from the 9th - 13th of September.

The first two events, the Big Air and the Park Jam, will be held at Cardrona Alpine Resort on the 9th and 10th of September respectively, while the final challenge, a heli-accessed backcountry freestyle event, will be held in the mountain ranges surrounding Wānaka on the 12th or 13th of September.

Porteous is gutted he has had to pull out of the event, but taking a step back isn't something he's scared of. For the past year he's taken a break from any competition, ACL surgery playing a part in that, but it's also allowed him to explore a new passion of filmmaking.

"I got back skiing in October and decided to take the year out of competition and film a video part," he said.

"I think it's cool in our sport that it's not all about competing - there's other opportunities to be a skier and one of them is filming projects."

Porteous lived in Austria this year and filmed a solo video as well as jetting over to Japan to film with his brother Miguel.

"It keeps things from getting stale and exciting cos things are changing every day when you're filming.

"We build jumps and sort of treat the mountain as our full playground and do whatever we want."

Porteous is back home for a short period before heading back overseas but he is excited to watch team Oceania in action.