Zoi Sadowski-Synnott headlines first NZ selection for 2026 Winter Olympics

3:02 pm on 3 October 2025

Zoi Sadowski Synnott celebrates winning the silver medal in the women's snowboarding big air finals during the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games at Big Air Shougang.

Zoi Sadowski-Synnott celebrates winning a silver medal in the women's snowboarding big air finals during the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games. Photo: Photosport

Eight athletes have been conditionally selected to represent New Zealand at the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games, headlined by New Zealand's most decorated Winter Olympian Zoi Sadowski-Synnott.

The athletes selected will be hoping to build on New Zealand's most successful Winter Olympic Games at Beijing 2022, where Kiwi athletes claimed two gold medals and a silver.

Sadowski-Synnott made history in Beijing, winning New Zealand's first Winter Olympic gold medal in Snowboard Slopestyle, alongside a silver in Big Air. She also won a Big Air bronze medal at PyeongChang 2018.

Sadowski-Synnott has three Snowboard Slopestyle World Championships to her name. In 2025 alone, she claimed four World Cup podiums, including three gold, a gold and bronze at X Games and capped the year as the first Kiwi female to bring home the FIS Crystal Globe for topping the overall Snowboard Slopestyle World Cup standings.

The selections are subject to the NZOC receiving a quota for each event. There is expected to be a further athlete selection announcement in January 2026 after European winter performances.

Alice Robinson returns for her third Olympic Games after competing at PyeongChang 2018 and Beijing 2022. Robinson this year became the first Kiwi ski racer to win a World Championships medal with silver in Giant Slalom. In 2025, Robinson has finished on the podium at every Giant Slalom World Cup race she completed, bringing her career total to 17 World Cup medals, including four golds.

In men's Freeski, Luca Harrington is selected to the team having represented New Zealand at the Lausanne 2020 Winter Youth Olympic Games where he claimed bronze in Freeski Halfpipe. He will be looking to capitalise on a standout 2024-25 season where he stood on five World Cup podiums, notching two wins, while also claiming gold and silver on X Games debut. He won the Freeski Big Air World Championship, marking the first time a Kiwi skier has held this title, he was also the first Kiwi to win a Freeski Crystal Globe.

In 2025, Harrington and fellow NZ Team athlete Ben Barclay shared an historic World Cup Slopestyle podium - the first time two Kiwis have stood on a Park & Pipe podium together. Barclay, who finished 10th in Freeski Slopestyle at Beijing 2022 - New Zealand's best Olympic result in the discipline - brings further experience to the NZ Team for Milano Cortina having stood on multiple World Cup podiums throughout his career.

Queenstown local Ruby Star Andrews has been selected for her first Winter Olympics. The 20-year-old has stood on three career World Cup Slopestyle podiums and was fifth at the 2025 World Championships.

In the Halfpipe, Fin Melville Ives will go into his first Olympic Winter Games as the reigning Freeski Halfpipe World Champion. Melville Ives claimed the World title on his debut at the World Championships this season and can lay claim to a further World Cup gold earlier in 2025. He was part of the NZ Team's most successful Winter Youth Olympic Games at Gangwon 2024, where he won the silver medal in Freeski Halfpipe.

Fin's twin brother Cam Melville Ives also competed at Gangwon 2024 where he claimed bronze in Snowboard Big Air. A strong 2025 season saw Cam secure multiple podiums on the European Cup circuit as well as a fifth-place finish in Halfpipe at his debut World Championships in 2025.

At 17-years-old, Luke Harrold completes this selection of athletes to the NZ Team. In 2023, Harrold was the youngest Kiwi to podium at a World Cup event, before making history at the 2025 World Championships by landing the first 'triple corked rotation' in a Freeski Halfpipe competition, where he finished fourth. Harrold was part of the successful Gangwon 2024 Winter Youth Olympic team, picking up bronze in the Freeski Big Air and gold in the Halfpipe.

Snow Sports NZ chief executive Nic Cavanagh is excited to watch Kiwi snow sports athletes take on the world in Milano Cortina next year.

"This group of eight athletes who have been selected to the New Zealand Team today includes current Olympic and World Champions at the top of their game, as well as some exceptionally talented up-and-coming athletes. For all of them, today's announcement reflects years of hard work and dedication to their sport, and I am looking forward to watching them all in action in Milano Cortina," said Cavanagh.

With other New Zealand Team athlete selections expected in late January 2026, Cavanagh said Milano Cortina 2026 could potentially see the biggest contingent of snow sports athletes to ever represent New Zealand at an Olympic Winter Games.

The Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games will take place from 6 - 22 February across Italian alpine venues.