New Zealand has claimed its second gold medal of the Beijing Winter Olympics, with freestyle skier Nico Porteous surviving gusty conditions to claim victory in the men's half-pipe competition.
The 20-year-old reigning halfpipe world champion from Hamilton improved on his bronze medal from PyeongChang with a superb first run in which he scored 93.00.
"I'm so, so happy and I'm currently over the moon. I still can't really believe it," Porteous said.
The Wanaka-based skier sent down back-to-back double cork 1620s on that first run and was never challenged despite failing to land his next two runs in tricky conditions in Zhangjiakou.
He beat out Americans David Wise (90.75) and Alex Ferreira (86.75) into silver and bronze respectively.
Porteous's older brother Miguel also competed in the competition, coming 11th.
"I think that's anyone's dream. Especially in those moments, I'll never forget something like that. That's a lifetime memory that will never go away," Nico said.
"[I'm] really proud to call him my brother."
The New Zealand team performed a haka in honour of his achievement at the bottom of the run, the impact not diluted by the fact they were fully rugged up in mittens and hats in the -25C temperatures.
It is New Zealand's third medal of the Games, marking the country's most successful Winter Olympics in more than 70 years of competition.
Snowboarder Zoi Sadowski-Synnott won New Zealand's first-ever Winter Olympics gold — also in the half-pipe — and backed that up with a silver in the big air events earlier in the Games.
However, the competition at the Genting Snow Park was marred by high winds, which severely hampered a number of athletes and was a contributing factor in a number of heavy crashes.
Throughout the competition the wind howled across the top of the pipe, whipping up snow and tugging at the bibs of the competitors before they dropped into the pipe.
Porteous acknowledged the wind and temperature made everything "tough".
"It was very slow and it was quite challenging," he said.
"But I stomped what I knew and tried my best and left everything out there and … it's so freezing cold right now, I'm lost for words."
Porteous was one of several skiers to crash, but few crashed harder than British skier Gus Kenworthy, who landed heavily at the very top of the pipe.
"The wind was the deciding factor for everyone," said Kenworthy, who said he was "sore" but not hurt too badly.
"Even the guys who are on top, they put down incredible runs — it was awesome to see — but they have all scaled back from what I think they were hoping to do.
"I certainly scaled back from what I was hoping to do."
Silver medallist Wise agreed, describing the conditions as "wild".
He said Porteous impressed him because he did not hold back.
"Really impressed by Nico's skiing today. He pretty much did the run he wanted to do in spite of the wind, whereas myself and Alex [Ferreira] scaled back a little bit.
"If anything, when it's really windy, it's kind of a little bit of an advantage for me," Wise said in reference to his 20kg weight advantage over his competitors.
"You just kind of embrace it and say, 'All right, this is the conditions that it is'. Certainly, we would all like it to be a little nicer but you have to go out there and do what you can on this day."
