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Nico Porteous defies wind and crashes to win freeski halfpipeIt is nation’s second gold after Sadowski-Synott in slopestyle
Nico Porteous has dropped the curtain on New Zealand’s greatest ever Winter Games, overcoming the elements and a field of established champions to win the Olympic freeski halfpipe title. The 20-year-old from the South Island resort town of Wanaka soared and spun to New Zealand’s second ever gold medal at a Winter Olympics on Saturday, two weeks to the day after Zoi Sadowski-Synnott’s history-making first.
Remarkably, only 12 of the 91 nations competing at the Beijing Games have managed to win more golds than two Kiwi athletes from a tiny lakeside hamlet. “We both come from a town of ten thousand people, and skiing and snowboarding is our passion,” Porteous said. “We just absolutely love it. When Zoi won her gold in slopestyle it was such a motivational moment for myself. I really, really, really wanted it, and that just made me put my head down and really work hard.”
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