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Under the lights of a packed Livigno Snow Park on a crisp
Zoi Sadowski-Synnott and Kokomo Murase to renew rivalry in Slopestyle final.
One week after finishing one-two in Snowboard Big Air at the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games, Kokomo Murase (JPN) and Zoi Sadowski-Synnott (NZL) will renew their friendly rivalry in Tuesday’s Slopestyle final at the Livigno Snow Park.
This time, Sadowski-Synnott will be competing in her signature event, and the 2024/25 Slopestyle Crystal Globe winner has already displayed why she is the favourite for gold by topping the 30-strong field in Sunday’s qualification.
The defending Olympic Slopestyle champion began with a bang, her first run featuring a frontside 1080 mute on the first jump (the highest-scored individual trick at 9.90), a backside 900 tailgrab on jump two, and a switch backside 900 mute on the final feature for a score 81.73 points. Sadowski then stepped things up in run two, throwing down a backside 1260 melon on the second jump to help bump her score up to 88.08 points.
Murase, who beat Sadowski-Synnott to Big Air gold on 9 February, qualified second on the strength of her first run. She linked a frontside double cork 900 truck driver, a cab 900 and a backside 1080 on the jump line for 84.93 points.
Big Air bronze medalist Seungeun Yu (KOR) qualified third with 76.80 points, also signalling her intent to grab a second medal at Livigno Snow Park.
Reira Iwabuchi (JPN) and two-time Olympic Big Air champion Anna Gasser (AUT) finished fourth (73.65) and fifth (73.50) respectively to make the 12-strong final, which begins at 13:00 CET tomorrow.
Sadowski-Synnott, who also advanced to the Beijing 2022 final as the top rider, said: “It feels really good. Feels really good to land. A lot of pressure going into today, but just grateful we got good weather so that all the girls can show their best.”
Murase was 10th in that Beijing final but has shown plenty of progression over the years. She was second to Sadowski-Synnott at the 2025 World Championships and is this season’s Slopestyle World Cup leader. The duo also shared the Slopestyle podium at X Games Aspen 2026 last month.
Sadowski-Synnott only returned to competition last month after time off due to bone bruising.
Already the most bemedaled women’s snowboarder in Olympic history, she can extend her record with another podium finish.
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