Wanaka snowsport athletes featured at the Snow Sports NZ annual awards night, which was held at the Lake Wanaka Centre on Saturday evening (October 10).

Zoi Sadowski-Synnott was awarded Snowboarder of the Year. Zoi won her second Winter X Games gold medal in Snowboard Slopestyle in Norway in March this year.

Nico Porteous won Freeskier of the Year, and Campbell Wright was awarded Cross Country Athlete of the Year.

Craig Murray was awarded Freeride Athlete of the Year jointly with Jess Hotter (Ohakune). It is very unusual for two athletes to jointly win the title, but with both having outstanding results this year on the Freeride World Tour, there was no way to separate them, the judges said. They both took a win on the Freeride World Tour this year with Jess winning in Kicking Horse, Canada and Craig in Fieberbrunn, Austria.  

Corey Peters won Adaptive Snow Sports Athlete of the Year.

Bonny Teat was awarded Women’s Masters Ski Racing Champion, and Margaux Hackett won Breakthrough Season, Freeski Slopestyle & Big Air. Margaux had two fourth place finishes at Freeski Big Air World Cups in the 2019/2020 Northern Hemisphere Season. 

Nico Porteous, Freeskier of the Year. PHOTO: Ross Mackay/Snow Sports NZ

Other winners included Rowan Pemberton (Queenstown), Instructor of the Year; Perry Coulter (Queenstown), Men’s Masters Ski Racing Champion; Chris Knight (Christchurch), Coach of the Year, Alpine Ski Racing; and Alice Robinson (Queenstown), Alpine Ski Racer of the Year.

Alice was also awarded the title of Snow Sports NZ Overall Athlete of the Year. 

Alice opened the season with a historical win in Austria at the Soelden Giant Slalom World Cup in October 2019. She became the youngest person ever to win a World Cup at this venue and it was New Zealand’s first Alpine Ski Racing World Cup win since 1997. Alice went on to win her second Giant Slalom World Cup in Slovenia in February this year. 

This year’s awards encompassed a 12-month timeframe including the 2019/20 Northern Hemisphere season and the 2020 Southern Hemisphere season.

Award night attendees were entertained by two panels of athletes answering a variety of questions from MC Ed Leigh. 

The panel included Jossi Wells, Olympian and six-time X Games medallist, Finn Bilous, member of the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympic team, Freeride World Qualifier competitor and local all-round shredder and Jess Hotter, Freeride World Tour athlete. They were joined by Willis Feasey, Tiarn Collins and Billy Dravitzki.  

It has been another hugely successful year for Snow Sports NZ, albeit slightly shorter than previous years due to COVID-19 cutting the Northern season short, Snowsports NZ said in a statement.

Snow Sports NZ is the national sporting organisation representing the interests of adaptive snowsports, alpine ski racing, cross country skiing, freeskiing and snowboarding.