Athlete Profile

Zoi Sadowski-Synnott: Back To Win It

By Colin Bane

In 2024, X Games champ Zoi Sadowski-Synnott was on-site in Aspen...

...for the 6th consecutive year. But she was watching from the friends and family corral, a broken ankle preventing the two-time defending Snowboard Slopestyle champ from a threepeat attempt. Sadowski-Synnott had been at the forefront of progression in the discipline, but she witnessed the best riding in women’s history go down without her.

“Obviously, I was pretty bummed that I couldn’t compete,” Zoi says. “But just to be there for those huge moments in women’s snowboarding was really special and really inspiring.”

The New Zealand native is back for X Games Aspen 2025 and ready to pick up where she left off: the podium. Zoi took double gold in Slopestyle and Big Air at XG Aspen 2022, then earned another Slopestyle title and Big Air silver in 2023. She helped set the stage for the history made at XG Aspen 2024.

In Big Air, Zoi saw Kokomo Murase become the first woman to land a frontside triple cork 1440 in competition. In Slopestyle, she looked on as Mia Brookes became the first woman to land a 1440 in a Slopestyle run at X Games.

“All those girls worked so hard for that night, and it was hard not to be a part of it,” Zoi says. “But it definitely makes me excited to be coming back this year, knowing there was a whole leap forward in progression while I was out. It’s going to be really exciting.”

Zoi helped present the gold medals in 2024. At X Games Aspen 2025, she’s coming to take them back.

The Triples Are Coming

Image ©Mark Kohlman/X Games

Sadowski-Synnott says she was working on a triple cork 1440 of her own in 2023, aiming to be the first woman to do it. She’d come close but hadn’t put it down to snow. Then she broke her ankle at the World Cup Copper Mountain event the month before X Games Aspen 2024 -- the same contest where Murase landed the first triple corks (backside and Cab) in women’s competition.

After spending the season rehabbing her ankle, Zoi’s first order of business was returning to that triple cork. At the Stubai, Austria, training event in November, she officially STOMPED one.

“I don’t like playing catch-up, but it’s definitely motivating,” Zoi says. “I spent the whole last year trying to get back to full strength while also thinking about how to keep up with the new tricks that are what it takes to be at the top of the sport. There’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes to build up to a trick like the triple cork 1440, and in Stubai I tried it a couple times before I landed one. I’m pretty stoked to finally have it on snow, and I’ll hopefully get to try it at X Games and land it in front of a crowd.”

Family Business

Zoi says her parents Sean Synnott and Robin Sadowski have always been her biggest supporters. They even operated a terrain park for three years near the family home in Wanaka, New Zealand, and Zoi says they still play a pivotal role in her snowboarding career.

“I’m lucky to have them because they make it easy for me to do what I do and not stress about other things in life, including the admin side of things as a pro snowboarder,” Zoi explains. “I’m really grateful for that. I have four siblings, so my parents have a full-time job looking after all of us, even though we’re all out of school. They’re the best!”

Zoi’s parents had planned to attend X Games Aspen 2024. It was to be their first time in Aspen, but it wasn’t to be. Robin canceled her flight after Zoi’s injury, but dad was in the crowd watching with her.

“My dad decided to come anyway and ended up having a bit of a boys’ trip with his friend Greg, Tiarn Collins’ dad,” Zoi says. “Even though I wasn’t in the contest, it was really cool to have dad come out and experience X Games.”

The Great Leap Forward

Sadowski-Synnott is asked every year about the rapidly rising level of women’s snowboarding. But what was accomplished in 2024 was something else, Zoi says. It was as if the women took a time machine to the future, skipping over a year or two of trick evolution.

“I think seeing the first 1440s and alsoseeing Anna Gasser, Reira Iwabuchi and Laurie Blouin doing their triple underflips in 2023 was the catalyst for it, because it really set the bar of what it was going to take from then on out,” Zoi says.

If you thought the leaps forward in 2024 were huge, just wait.

“Every girl’s level has gone up like crazy, and there’s a lot more girls doing 1080s, 1260s, even 1440s, which is really cool,” Zoi says. “We could see triples, 1440s, maybe even 1620s. The likes of Anna, Kokomo, Mari, Reira and Mia really pushing the bar hard is inspiring all of us to keep pushing it.”

Zoi says she doesn’t usually call her shots before a big contest, especially X Games, but this year her goals are pretty clear.

“My focus for Big Air is definitely on the triple 14, and for Slopestyle it’s to put my switch backside 1260 into a Slopestyle run, which I’ve never done before,” she says. “These are going to be some crazy contests!”

Zoi Sadowski-Synnott Bio Blast