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Winter Olympics snowboard star Zoi Sadowski-Synnott has taken the supreme prize at the 60th ISPS Handa Halberg Awards on a glittering night for snow sports.
The 21-year-old – the first Kiwi to win gold at the Winter Olympics – also took out the Sportswoman of the Year crown at the annual awards ceremony in Auckland on Wednesday night.
Sadowski-Synnott won the slopestyle gold medal and took silver in the big air in Beijing in 2022 to back up her big air bronze medal at the 2018 Games.
The Wānaka athlete snared the Supreme award from a quality field of category winners, including her Winter Olympics teammate Nico Porteous, who won the men’s halfpipe gold medal in Beijing to take the Sportsman of the Year award, and the Black Ferns’ women’s Rugby World Cup champions (team of the year).
READ MORE:
* Zoi Sadowski-Synnott and Black Ferns headline finalists for Halberg Awards
* How Wānaka, a small resort town, brought home New Zealand’s first Winter Olympic gold in 70 years
* New Zealand enjoys its best Winter Olympics after gold for Zoi Sadowski-Synnott and Nico Porteous
Sadowski-Synnott, who is competing overseas, was unable to be in Auckland to collect her awards, but her father Sean accepted it on her behalf, jokingly throwing in a couple of colourful adjectives – as he did on live television last year when she won gold in Beijing.
Accepting the Supreme award for his daughter, he said: “Zoi said about three or four weeks if I’m not going to win it this year, I’m never going to win it”.
He quipped it was “incredibly stressful being the father of a high performance athlete, ‘who doesn’t want to turn up for award speeches’”.
It was a night to remember for snow sport, which took out four categories – Sportswoman, Sportsman, Para Athlete (Winter Paralympics gold medallist Corey Peters) and Emerging Talent (World Junior Championships gold medal skier Gustav Legnavsky).
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Black Ferns coach Wayne Smith wins the Coach of the Year award at the Halberg Awards.
The Black Ferns also made it a memorable double with World Cup winning head coach Wayne Smith winning coach of the year while Black Ferns Sevens Captain, Sarah Hirini was bestowed with the Sport New Zealand Leadership Award and Joanah Ngan-Woo’s lineout steal won the Favourite Sporting Moment.
There was a moving tribute to Sir Murray Halberg, the award’s founder and 1960 Rome Olympic Games 5000m champion, who died last November, aged 89.
It was remarked during the ceremony that the most important legacy that could be bestowed on the late Sir Murray, would be for the Halberg Foundation to not only survive but thrive to honour his remarkable contribution of 60 years and to continue this significant work.
This year’s Halberg Award judges had a devilishly difficult job to sort the category winners.
Sadowski-Synnott was up against Lydia Ko, fresh from a remarkable year on the LPGA Tour, Olympic and world kayaking champion Dame Lisa Carrington, with track cyclist Ellesse Andrews, who won three gold medals and a silver at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, and Black Ferns captain Ruahei Demant, who cleaned up at the New Zealand Rugby awards last month, and was named World Rugby’s women’s player-of-the-year in 2022, other strong contenders.
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New Zealand Winter Olympic Games medallists Nico Porteous (L) and Zoi Sadowski-Synnott have sparked a golden Halberg Awards for snow sports.
Porteous’ category rivals included cyclist Aaron Gate, who made history when he became the first Kiwi to win four gold medals at a single Commonwealth Games in Birmingham last year, trampolinist Dylan Schmidt, who backed up his bronze at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 by winning a world title last year, squash ace Paul Coll and motorsport gun Shane van Gisbergen.
The Black Ferns vied for Team of the Year with Joelle King and Amanda Landers-Murphy (squash – women’s doubles), Joelle King and Paul Coll (squash – mixed doubles), Kerri Williams and Grace Prendergast (rowing – pair) and New Zealand Eventing Team (equestrian).
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Coach of the Year Wayne Smith, (L) Sarah Hirini (L) Renee Wickliffe, Alana Bremner, Kendra Reynolds, Kendra Cocksedge and Kennedy Simon with Sir Graham Henry at the 60th ISPS Handa Halberg Awards.
Smith beat kayaking supremo Gordon Walker, snowboarding’s Sean Thompson and freeskiing specialist Tommy Pyatt for Coach of the Year.
Peters, the Winter Paralympics downhill sitting gold medallist who also earned silver in the Super-G sitting event, won the Para Athlete/Team of the Year award, edging out four-time category winner Dame Sophie Pascoe, a Commonwealth Games swimming champion again in 2022, Adam Hall (skiing), Cameron Leslie (swimming) and Nicole Murray (cycling).
The Emerging Talent award went to Legnavsky, gold medal winner in the freeski halfpipe at the Junior World Championships. He edged out other finalists Jenna Hastings (mountain bike junior world champion), Tara Vaughan (canoe racing), Cameron Gray (swimming), Josh Willmer (Para Swimming).
HALBERG AWARDS WINNERS FOR 2022
Sportswoman: Zoi Sadowski-Synnott (snow sport).
Sportsman: Nico Porteous (snow sport).
Team: Black Ferns (women’s rugby).
Coach: Wayne Smith (Black Ferns).
Para athlete/team: Corey Peters (snow sport.
Emerging talent: Gustav Legnavsky (snow sport).
Leadership award: Sarah Hirini (Black Ferns sevens).
Supreme Halberg winner: Zoi Sadowski-Synnott.
Favourite Sporting Moment: Joanah Ngan-Woo’s lineout steal for the Black Ferns in World Cup final.
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