What an incredible few days at the 2026 Winter Olympic Games in Italy with the NZ Team doing our country proud, both in success and defeat.
Headlining the action, two kiwi riders qualified in 1st position in what will be exciting and hard-fought finals of the men’s and women’s Snowboard Slopestyle. Zoi Sadowski-Synnott and Dane Menzies both took top honours, setting the bar high with bold early runs that were unmatched bycompetitors.
In Freeski Big Air, a competition that was hotly contested with no room for error, Luca Harringtonbrought his A-game showing his world class status, moving comfortably through to the finals in 5thposition, making him a medal prospect once again after taking bronze in Slopestyle.
Meanwhile in Alpine, Alice Robinson has now completed her Olympics campaign coming in eighth in both her Super G and Giant Slalom events. Seventy-six athletes lined up for the Giant Slalom event overnight but it was the Super G event winner and world champion Federica Brignone who stunned the field yet again winning back to back gold in an amazing injury comeback. Coming in in the top ten in both events, Robinson says there have been many emotions across the past month. In an event where less than a second separates the top of the podium from the rest, she has battled hard, coming so close yet so far.
Read more below -
Snowboard Slopestyle – Women’s Quals
On a bluebird day in Livigno, Zoi Sadowski-Synnott proved why she is the defending gold medallist, nailing two impressive runs to qualify ahead of the pack in Snowboard Slopestyle.
Traversing three rail islands and a trio of jumps, she nailed her first run scoring 81.73 then topped it with an 88.08 to take first in qualifying and an easy run into the finals. Sadowski-Synnott managed to edge out fellow competitor Murase Kocomo who took top spot on the podium in Snowboard Big Air.
“It feels really good to land,” said Sadowski-Synnott. “There was a lot of pressure going into today but I’m just grateful that we got good weather so that all the girls could show their best. I was pretty stressed when I found out they were going to bring qualies a day forward as it meant one less day of practice, but those changes come with our sport, we deal with the weather so much so we just had to roll with it.”
Lucia Georgalli enjoyed two great runs but didn’t score enough to make it to finals, ending the day in 20th place. Her best score was a 50.60. Said Georgalli "in my first run I missed out on my first two rails, but then I ended up getting my under-flip out of the rail and landed my jumps, so that was good. My second run I was feeling really good. I really just wanted to land a run and I said to myself, I’m at the Olympics, I’ve got to enjoy it and take it all in.”
Snowboard Slopestyle – Men’s Quals
Dane Menzies had a stunner of a day nailing his first run to score 86.06, giving him an early lead with a lot of riders still to come. Second on course, he combined strong trick variety and clean execution through the rail section before linking a polished jump line — switch backside 1260 into frontside 1440 finishing with a 1660. Menzies came 6th in Big Air earlier in the Games.
“It felt pretty good for sure, I definitely was not expecting that,” said Menzies. “I didn’t expect the judges to score that high, but they’re liking my selection of rails, so that’s good. I was a bit stressed last night after the schedule change. I was happy to put a run down after a brutal training session. I’m stoked and hopefully looking good for finals. I’m excited.”
The NZ Team’s three boarders fed from each other’s energy during the event, putting down some great runs in a competitive field. Rocco Jamieson had a solid first run scoring 56.56 taking him to 11ththen putting down a 42.28, meaning he did not advance to finals, ultimately coming in 18th.
“It just wasn’t my day for it,” said Jamieson. “Speed was a bit of an issue for me today. I thought I had way less speed than I did on that last landing.”
Lyon Farrell scored 68.61 then 65.80 across both his runs, coming in in 15th position. Farrell said “so close - I’m a little bummed out. I think I had a run that could have made finals if I’d landed it a bit cleaner, but that’s the way it goes. I was in the bubble spot for most of the first run, but got bumped out and knew what I had to do - it’s just unfortunate that it didn’t work out.”
Alpine Giant Slalom and Super G – Women’s
Overnight Alice Robinson claimed an eighth-place in Giant Slalom, missing out on the medals by the tiniest of margins, finishing 0.80s behind winner Federica Brignone (ITA) and 0.18s off the silver medal position.
Conditions at the Tofane Alpine Skiing Centre in Cortina d’Ampezzo were ideal, with clear blue skies overhead and cold temperatures delivering the hard and fast snow conditions needed for ski racing.
Set on the iconic Olympia delle Tofane, the rolling terrain would challenge the racers and punish even the smallest mistake. Robinson would later describe it as “one of the hardest GS hills we’ve had. It was by no means an easy hill. It doesn’t have to be steep and icy to be challenging. It’s got rollers and changes of direction, so I think it makes it tough.”
At the end of the first run, Robinson would be sitting in 10th place, 1.09s behind Brignone. Powering out of the gate in run two, Robinson looked strong and confident on course, charging her way through and searching for speed at every turn, but couldn’t quite beat the clock.
“I was pretty disappointed,” Robinson said, describing the moment when she first crossed the line to see that she’d missed out on a medal spot. “I came down and saw I was in fourth (at that point) and only 12 hundredths behind. It was hard, but then watching the rest of the race play out, it actually ended up a bit better than I thought.
“There have been so many emotions for me in the past month. It was just quite a big day. I really wasn’t sure what to expect. I think GS has been a bit of a question mark for me the past two months. From having such a good start to the season and then I was really struggling a lot, especially in the last race. So today I really didn’t know what was going to happen. I felt a lot better on my skis but I didn’t really feel like I was going to be in the running for a medal, then to have it be so close and let it slip away, it was quite sad, but I’m proud at the same time.”
Robinson also finished eighth in the Super-G three days earlier, delivering a solid opening performance in Cortina d’Ampezzo. Competing at her third Olympic Winter Games, the 24-year-old had mist and fog to contend with, and 17 of the 43 starters failed to finish.
Robinson opened strongly in the race, skiing with power and control through the top section before a slight line error cost her valuable time. She crossed the line 1.03 seconds behind Brignone, securing eighth place in a discipline where podium positions are decided by hundredths of a second.
Snowboard Halfpipe – Men’s
Cam Melville Ives qualified for the Snowboard Halfpipe finals after a confident performance under the lights at the Livigno Olympic Halfpipe. Ultimately coming 12th in the finals, he showed he could mix it with the best in the world, landing big tricks including huge triple cork 1440s.
In a stunning opening run in finals, he landed two triple cork 1440s, only to run out of room on the last hit. Back to the top for run two, Melville Ives went for the same run but again couldn’t finish cleanly. Ultimately it was not to be, with the young athlete unable to complete a dream run.
Asked if he could simply have done with a bigger halfpipe, Melville Ives said, “I mean, I landed the whole run in training, I just went way bigger in the competition, so I just ran out of halfpipe. I’ll have to go a bit smaller next time.”
Freeski Big Air – Women’s
Freeskiers Sylvia Trotter and Ruby Andrews put together a fierce effort in the qualification rounds of Big Air but missed out on spots in the final, finishing 21st and 24th respectively.
18-year-old Trotter made an outstanding start to her competition, putting down a textbook landing on her right-side double 1080 with a Japan grab, earning a score of 83, which would put her in sixth place at the end of the first run.
With the combined score of two jumps, spun in two different directions, determining the final placings, she would need to back up with a well-executed second jump to really make it count. Trotter couldn't quite hold on to the landing of her switch left 900 on her second run and landed cleanly on her third jump, unfortunately losing points for not holding onto her grab.
Coming back from a dislocated hip only three months ago, Andrews said she’d proved something to herself during the competition.
“I wasn’t 100% sure if I was going to do the Big Air this week and I thought, you know what, I’m at the Olympics, I’m just going to give it my all. It’s been a really tough couple of weeks testing my resilience. Somehow, I managed to dig a bit deeper, find a bit more and give it everything, so I feel like I can walk away feeling like I gave it my all. I’m really happy with how I skied. I just wanted to show up tonight and give it everything and walk away and be proud of myself.”
Freeski Big Air – Men’s Quals
The action continued this morning with Freeski Big Air. New Zealand had three athletes in the race -Luca Harrington, Ben Barclay and Lucas Ball. It was an incredible qualifying event with competitors going huge in order to make it to the finals bubble. No one was leaving much on the table.
Across three runs, riders needed two high-scoring tricks spun in two different directions. Harrington scored an 84.25 off the bat which got him off to a solid start, but he would need more to make his way up the finals scoreboard. In run 2, he raised his game adding a stylish two-handed grab to his switch triple 1800 for a second run score of 92. That put him in 5th position where he stayed to qualify.
Ben Barclay and Lucas Ball laid down some huge tricks but finished outside the top 12, coming in 19th and 24th respectively.
“It was pretty crazy out there,” said Barclay. “People are doing insane stuff. Finals is going to be off the hook. This event isn’t really my forte, so just to be out there, land a couple of tricks, is all I could ask for. I’m in spectator mode now, ready to watch Luca and I’ll be the loudest in the crowd.”
Ball said he was “super happy to be here. It didn’t go the way I wanted to, but I’m just stoked to be out here. Obviously I’m bummed I didn’t get two tricks down and keep going, but I’m just happy to land that last one and show everyone a bit of what I can do and how I ski.
"It’s going to be sick to watch Luca in finals. It’s just nice to see everyone sharing the Olympic experience together and having fun regardless of the results.”
PC - nzteam, Tim Marshall
19 hours ago
Olympics