Nico Porteous (Wānaka, 22) has claimed the silver medal in a hotly contested X Games Men's Ski SuperPipe at the Aspen X Games.
Porteous said, “It feels amazing, it’s been two years since I have been on the podium with the year off. I have been switching up how I ski and tonight I wanted to express myself. I did what I wanted to do and it paid off – I am over the moon.
Porteous, the Beijing 2022 freeski halfpipe Olympic Champion, saved the best for last in Aspen, clinching the silver medal on his third and final run. He put together a unique run that oozed style and creativity, along with the highly technical tricks he is renowned for.
Starting off his run with style, Porteous dropped in with a stylish buttered 180 before setting the tone with a huge switch straight air. Moving into the technical tricks he laced together a textbook switch left double cork 1080 into a right double cork 1620.
Then things really got creative – upon landing his 1620 instead of skiing across the halfpipe to hit the right hand wall, Porteous laid his skis on edge and threw a huge cut back carve to hit the left wall again, executing a massive left ally-oop flat 540.
Porteous stomped a huge left double cork 1620 to finish his run, the crowd loved it and the judges agreed, rewarding him with the silver medal. This medal marks Porteous's fourth prestigious X Games SuperPipe medal of his career.
Alex Ferreira of the USA took the top spot today, with compatriot Hunter Hess rounding out the podium in third.
Snow Sports NZ Coach, Byron Wells explained; “The guys came up with the plan to do two hits on the left wall, every day we have been on snow we have worked and worked on it. It’s so epic to see it pay off and for Nico to put that down in front of the world - we are both ecstatic.”
Earlier today we saw X Games debutants Ruby Star Andrews (19) and Tiarn Collins (24), both of Queenstown, in action for the second time this weekend. They each contested their respective slopestyle events on the super creative X Games course.
Collins put together a solid run, including a huge cab triple cork 1800 on the final jump to finish in sixth place. The cab triple cork 1800 was a personal best trick for Collins - today marked the first time he has landed it in a slopestyle competition.
Andrews had a personal best run of her own, spinning all four ways on the rails as well as landing back-to-back 900s on the jumps for her first time in competition to finish in seventh place.
This rounds up a huge weekend of action at the 2024 Aspen Winter X Games. The Snow Sports NZ Park and Pipe team will next be in action at the Mammoth Mountain World Cup next weekend. The Youth Olympic Games team will be continuing their highly successful campaign on Wednesday with the halfpipe events.
9 months ago