Photo: Red Bull
New Zealand’s youngest ever Olympic medallist, Nico Porteous, has announced he’s “stepping back” from Olympic competition and will pursue other opportunities in skiing. Porteous, who won bronze in skiing’s halfpipe competition in 2018 when he was just 16, and gold at the 2022 Games, also holds gold medals in Winter X (2021 and 2022), but says he’s lost his competitive drive.
In an interview with The Post, a New Zealand media outlet, Ponteous pointed out that he’s been hustling in freesking’s competitive realm for most of his life now. He was 10 when he started, and saw a rapid rise to competitive success that included landing a 1440 triple cork at 14, and appearing on the podium in his first Olympics at 16. He won Olympic gold four years later, all by the time he was 20 years old.
“Naturally throughout that period things change and priorities shift, and I think one of those priorities for me was I lost that little bit of competitive drive and edge in a way, and found passion in other things, though still in skiing. I just thought, ‘I’m healthy, and I’ve achieved what I wanted to when I started this whole thing.’ It was a scary decision but something I feel really comfortable with now,” he told The Post.
In a statement announcing the decision, Porteous was clear to point out that he’s not retiring. He’s simply declaring that he’s stepped away from Olympic competition, but will continue “pushing the boundaries of what’s possible” in freeskiing through filming. He’ll also remain active in product development.
The decision came to the young Kiwi last September but he apparently wanted to keep it private so he could be sure it was something he’d want to follow through with. He says he’s happy with the decision still and feels comfortable with it, which is why the news is making headlines this week. By freeing himself from pursuing Olympic success, he’s now eyeing “other competitive events of a less rigid nature,” which includes Travis Rice’s Natural Selection Tour.
“I lost the competitive passion, but I haven’t lost the passion for skiing at all,” he said. “If anything it’s more alive and healthier than it was. In our sport we’re lucky to have different avenues you can make a career in, and one of those is the media side of things which I’ve really enjoyed and want to keep pushing at for as long as I can see.”
