Snow Sports NZ Annual Awards Winners Announced

Lake Wanaka, NZ – (1 October 2017) – The Snow Sports NZ Annual Awards Night were held last night (Saturday 30 September 2017) at the Lake Wanaka Centre. Snowboarder Zoi Sadowski Synnott (Wanaka) was awarded the title of Overall Athlete of the Year.

Snow Sports NZ is pleased to announce the following winners.
Instructor of the Year – Kim Cosman (The Remarkables)
Men’s Masters Ski Racing Champion – Jon Wardrop (Auckland)
Women’s Masters Ski Racing Champion – Julie Gibbs (Auckland)
Coach of the Year – Nils Coberger (Queenstown)
Breakthrough Season – Alice Robinson (Queenstown)
Cross Country Athlete of the Year – Campbell Wright (Wanaka)
Alpine Ski Racer Athlete of the Year – Adam Barwood (Queenstown)
Adaptive Snow Sports Athlete of the Year – Corey Peters (New Plymouth)
Freeride Athlete of the Year – Sam Lee (Wanaka)
Snowboarder of the Year – Zoi Sadowski Synnott (Wanaka)
Freeskier of the Year – Jamie Prebble (Christchurch)
Overall Athlete of the Year – Zoi Sadowski Synnott
This year’s Awards encompassed a 12-month timeframe including the 2016/17 Northern Hemisphere season and the 2017 Southern Hemisphere season.

It has been another successful year for Snow Sports NZ with athletes performing well at pinnacle events including World Cups, World Championships, The Freeride World Qualifier Tour and X Games.
Attendees of this year’s Snow Sports NZ Annual Awards were entertained by guest speaker Peter Wardell, Chef de Mission to the NZ Winter Olympic Team for PyeongChang 2018.

About Snow Sports NZ Overall Athlete of the Year – Zoi Sadowski Synnott
The 2016/2017 Northern Hemisphere season was Zoi’s first competing on the World Cup circuit. Her results went from strength to strength and at just sixteen-years-old Zoi is currently ranked third on the International Ski Federation (FIS) World Cup standings for women’s snowboard slopestyle. She triumphed in the 2016-17 season's slopestyle World Cup finale which was staged in the Czech Republic at the end of March, earned silver at the World Championships in Spain earlier the same month and claimed World Cup bronze in Snowboard Big Air in Quebec, Canada in February. Back home in New Zealand this winter Zoi claimed a World Cup bronze medal in slopestyle in front of home crowds at the Audi quattro Winter Games NZ.