On 17 May, eight Year 9 and 10 girls were lucky enough to have the opportunity to meet Zoi Sadowski-Synnott, an amazing New Zealand snowboarder.

 Zoi has achieved some incredible titles over her snowboarding career, including becoming an Olympic Medalist and being awarded the winner of the Supreme Award and the Junior Sportswoman for 2018 at the ASB Otago Sports Awards. To top this off she was named the Supreme Winner again for 2019 on Friday evening.

It was an honour to meet with someone who has achieved so much at such a young age – only 18! For me it was inspiring to hear about her coping mechanisms in dealing with the pressure of competition and the stresses involved at such a high level. I will take this advice and apply it to my own sport – completely focusing on the race from start to finish and concentrating on nothing else sounds like great advice.

Zoi also talked about how many months/days/hours she trained to achieve her goals and about not wanting to get out of bed for yet another exhausting day of training. She did get up to train though, even on the days she felt like it was pointless.

Her story has motivated us all to never say never and keep pushing yourself to be the best you can possibly be. I wish Zoi the best of luck for her upcoming events and achievements, she has done NZ proud.