Otago freeski star Nico Porteous has celebrated his return from injury with a medal at the X Games.
The 22-year-old Wanaka freeskier claimed silver in a hotly contested superpipe final at the invite-only Aspen event yesterday.
It was a welcome comeback by Porteous, who had a long layoff after having knee surgery after his Winter Olympic gold medal heroics in 2022.
“It feels amazing — it’s been two years since I have been on the podium with the year off,’’ Porteous said.
Porteous, who won his Olympic gold in the halfpipe in Beijing, saved the best for last in Aspen, clinching the silver medal on his third and final run.
Starting off his run with style, Porteous dropped in with a stylish buttered 180 before setting the tone with a huge switch straight air.
Moving into the technical tricks, he laced together a textbook switch left double cork 1080 into a right double cork 1620.
Then things really got creative. Upon landing his 1620, instead of skiing across the halfpipe to hit the right-hand wall, Porteous laid his skis on edge and threw a huge cut-back carve to hit the left wall again, executing a massive left ally-oop flat 540.
Porteous finished with a huge left double cork 1620 to claim the fourth X Games superpipe medal of his career.
American freeskier Alex Ferreira claimed top spot, and compatriot Hunter Hess was third.
Snow Sports NZ coach Byron Wells said Porteous had worked hard on his routine.
"It’s so epic to see it pay off and for Nico to put that down in front of the world. We are both ecstatic."
Earlier, Queenstown X Games debutants Ruby Star Andrews and Tiarn Collins were in action in slopestyle.
Collins finished sixth, landing a cab triple cork 1800 for the first time in competition, while Andrews was seventh.
— Staff reporter
