How Are You So Good? | Zoi Sadowski-Synnott
Words Will Fraser | Printed in Issue 17.3
We like to think greatness is simple. Talent plus hard work equals podium. But anyone who has spent time in elite sport knows it isn’t that linear. There are hundreds of people working hard, and yet only a handful ever become “the best.” Zoi Sadowski-Synnott is one of those handful. Not just because she’s talented, but because she occupies a space in snowboarding that feels different.
[o] Aaron Blatt
So the question isn’t just “how is she so amazing?” It’s: why her? What combination of access, environment, obsession, timing, mindset, and yes, luck, was stacked in her favour? And how much of it can anyone else actually replicate?
The story begins, as most good ones do, around age four. Zoi was a little blond sports nut, playing soccer—or football, as she insists—with a gusto that made other kids look half-hearted. She loved it, until the family moved to Wanaka at age seven, and the world shifted.
“When we first moved to Wanaka, we moved next to Will and Abby Jackways, prominent NZ snowboarders, who had a miniramp in their backyard. That’s where I learned to drop in. I ate so much shit, so many times, until I finally got it. I became obsessed with skateboarding.”
Then, at eight, inspired by her older brother Dylan, Zoi started snowboarding. For most kids, that meant nagging our parents for lift tickets. For Zoi, her parents bought the hill! At the age of nine, Snow Park, New Zealand, became Zoe’s playground, with her mom as the general manager. This meant Zoi could take full advantage of the country’s short four-month season.
“In the winter,” Zoi says, “we lived up on the mountain. I would actually have to drive down it to go to school. For my age, I was snowboarding more than anyone… it was cool being up at Snow Park. A bunch of international pros would come to ride, and it allowed me to see them in person. To see what a pro snowboarder looked like, how they rode. That helped me understand snowboarding more.”
[o] Aaron Blatt
Zoi wasn’t just playing. She was immersed. Night riding, watching pros, absorbing it all like a sponge. At 10, she competed in the same contest as Jamie Anderson. “I competed in the under-16 category on the big line and just rolled over the knuckles. Only one other girl was competing, so I got second and won like $50 or something. Seeing Jamie there made it feel like it was in arm’s reach.”
Many people talk about this—the need for role models. Seeing someone like you succeed unlocks the possibility that you can too. That’s what Zoi was describing. She had the opportunity to see women like Jamie Anderson paving the way in a male-dominated sport.
Zoi’s early trajectory wasn’t all linear. At around the age of 11, Snow Park folded, and Zoi rode alone for a year, which was something she wanted to do, but it also stripped her of community. “During that year, I realized I needed the group vibe. It’s so hard to get better by yourself. I needed more external motivation.” At 12, she joined a local program, HPC, riding with peers her age.
Watch Zoi in her 2024 release, Yellow.
The comment about external motivation hit me. As young athletes, we start out trying to impress people: parents, coaches, fans. This can drive significant progress, but it can make self-worth (and internal motivation) harder to untangle from performance. Learning to build a sense of who you are outside of praise is part of growing into a healthy athlete.
“At 14,” Zoi says, “I went overseas for the first time to train and compete with the New Zealand development team. I did that for about two years before getting picked up by the national team.” Within that time, two big things happened: Anna Gasser landed the first cab double cork 900, and slopestyle snowboarding was added to the 2014 Olympics. This led Zoi to see that the world stage wasn’t closed to her. “I saw that being from New Zealand didn't hold you back,” she says, “and that women’s snowboarding was something I really wanted to be a part of.”
Then came the national team and the 2018 Olympics. At sixteen, Zoi became the youngest person (at the time) to medal in Olympic snowboarding. “Podiuming put my name on the map,” she shares. “Agents started approaching me, and sponsors. My parents' business background really helped me during that time. They advised me, but also always let me make my own decisions. The result was ending up partnering with my dream sponsors.”
She also credited those who came before her for her success. “All the time and energy that past female snowboarders had put in really influenced what brands were willing to invest in female snowboarding. The opportunities that came to me from all the work those women put in over decades of progression and fighting for space and opportunity in snowboarding helped me and my peers so much.”
[o] Aaron Blatt
There’s a lot in Zoi’s story: determination, support, timing. In a way, she’s also a champion of the larger female movement in snowboarding, uplifted by the generations before her.
By 20, Zoi was back on the international stage at the 2022 Olympics, and crushing it. When I asked how she reached that level in four years, she humbly called it a perfect storm. “When COVID happened, I had a chance to slow down and reflect on my snowboard career and look forward to the 2022 Olympics. It was kinda perfect for me, getting that solitude. Going into that Olympic qualifying season, I couldn’t hang out with anyone except for my team, and we had a great team culture.”
Zoi shared that she’s somewhat of an introvert, and being a young person thrown into a lot of success and fame following the 2018 Olympics was a bit overwhelming for her. COVID, she says, helped quiet the noise. “Had COVID not happened, I feel I would have been pulled in so many directions, but COVID gave me the excuse to say no and focus on my riding… then at the Olympics, I was still in the bubble of the New Zealand team, and it was a perfect environment for me at the time.”
Watch Zoi and the rest of the Burton crew in PAVED.
Zoi’s humble, completely aware of the luck and help she’s had, but also noticeably driven. To explore this, I asked her a hypothetical question: Imagine someone with the exact same life, looks, access, and opportunities as you—but a different mindset. Would they be as successful?
“I’m not sure,” she says, laughing. Then, after a pause, she adds, “I’m very aware that what I do is very self-indulgent and selfish. I’ve learned that more and more over the years. My parents work incredibly hard and support me more than most, and I’m so lucky for that. I do think it’s insane to stress about a subjective contest outcome you can't control. So, when I pull up to a comp that I worked really hard to get to, I’m hoping for the best, but if it doesn’t go well, I’m at peace that it’s not meant to be and I can learn from that experience.”
She laughs again, second-guessing herself. “It’s hard for me to explain my mindset because it just is… I’ve been given a lot of knowledge and opportunities by some very wise people that I don’t think many others have received. So I try my best to make the most of the things I’ve been given, and keep learning, especially when things don’t go well—because things don’t go well a lot.”
Listening to her explain it, you can hear both the gratitude and the complexity of what she’s describing—and honestly, it’s not an easy thing to put into words.
“When you’re in pursuit of a big goal, there’s the blind motivational phrase: ‘If you put everything into something, it will work out,’ which is true, because regardless of the outcome, you’re going to learn something from all that energy you’ve put in. But there’s also something about balance in your life and where you put your energy. If you put all your energy into a goal, whether that goal is achieved or not, where does all that energy go after that?... Over the years, I’ve learned how to find a balance, so I feel content even when I don’t have snowboarding. For me, being very aware of who I am as a person, not just an athlete or a snowboarder, is important. I’m also a daughter, a sister, a friend. They are such basic things that have nothing to do with snowboarding or being an athlete, but they are aspects of my life that are really important to me.”
In sport psychology, we call what Zoi’s talking about a 'mature athletic identity.' It’s something that generally takes time to develop, and some really struggle with it. But having an answer to “what else am I?” is a powerful protective factor for mental health. And, at the end of this, she was able to explain something that I think sets her apart, offering not only some resilience to hard times, when many of us may really beat ourselves up, but also some perspective during the good. It seems Zoi has learned and will continue to learn that life is more than whatever sport we’re obsessed with, and the funny thing is, that mindset is shown to build longevity in sport, reducing burnout. So, here is to mental resilience and Zoi having a long and happy career.
All in all, it isn’t just talent or time on snow that makes Zoi so good. It’s the full combination—opportunity, community, luck, determination, mindset, and a sense of awareness. From a young age, she studied how others rode, how they carried themselves, how they handled pressure. She learned from everyone around her and turned that into something of her own. Her story might seem like something you can’t replicate, but that’s not really what this series of articles is about. It’s not about a formula. It’s an invitation for learning from others and applying what might fit your life so you can succeed, in whatever way you define that.
