Olympian Zoi Sadowski-Synnott’s father says confidence high heading into Big Air final

Olympian Zoi Sadowski-Synnott’s dad says his daughter’s confidence will be high heading into today’s Big Air final.

The 20-year-old became New Zealand’s first Winter Olympian gold medallist last week after winning the slopestyle, and yesterday she topped the Big Air qualifier.

Her father, Sean Synnott, said his daughter was in a good head space and had some good training runs.

Today she was going for her ultimate goal – double gold medals at the Olympics, he said.

The Big Air final starts at 2.30pm.

Synnott told Morning Report “She pulled it out of the bag again on the last run (yesterday), it’s another day, it’s another competition, we’re hoping she’s able to pull something out of the bag again.

“I think she’s pretty comfortable with it. It is a fairly intimidating structure (the jump). All the competitors think it’s the best jump they have been on and it’s quite a feat of engineering.

“I’d say she’s 100 percent focused on the job at hand. We have the sort of unwritten rule that we go radio silent when she’s in competition mode, so that’s where we’re at. We get the occasional text and maybe a photo.”

Synnott said his daughter’s preferred event was slopestyle.

It gives more illustration of her all-round ability.

“They definitely have to be on the game on the day. Conditions can change. It only requires a few different ruts in the snow to throw someone off their line.

“You’ve seen that where people stuttering going into the into the actual jump. (It is) definitely a mental game.”

Sadowski-Synnott had the advantage of going last, which meant she would be able to see what everyone else was doing, her father said.

He said it was a “pretty amazing experience” having his daughter at the Olympics.

The family would be gathering in Wānaka today to watch the finals, along with other families who had members competing at the games.