Kiwi-born and raised between Christchurch, New Zealand and Perth, Australia, where his father took a mining industry job when he was young, Porteous first stepped into skis at the age of four while on a family trip to France. He and his older brother, Miguel Porteous–also a skier and also competing at the Games–started out in New Zealand’s racing circuit before switching to the looser, more artistic freestyle division.
“We were getting up to the nationals level for racing, but even during that time our passion was in freestyle,” Porteous says. “And I was always chasing after my older brother—as you do as a younger brother.”
He is now based in Wanaka, New Zealand, with his parents, but has only spent about three months at home since March of 2020 given the country’s strict COVID-19 protocols. Throughout the year, he trains in New Zealand, the United States, and Europe; when he’s not skiing, he’s honing his skills as a DJ, having performed at his first festival in New Zealand in 2021. (Porteous is a fan of punk rock, post-punk, “heavy” techno, and ’90s-era rap—he listened to Notorious B.I.G. during his 2022 X Games-winning run.) He also notes that he’s mostly in the cold, following the seasonal inversions of the northern and southern hemispheres. Most people fantasize about an endless summer, but for Porteous, permafrost is preferred.
Porteous’s weapon of choice is a trick combination that he invented. He does back-to-back 1620s, which are two full flips with four rotations each. The catch—making it all the more impressive—is that he does one to the right and then immediately pulls the opposite leftward, his skis crossed in perpendicular wedges like a Sikorsky’s blades and spinning almost as fast. When trailing behind at the 2022 X Games, Porteous added a switch Double Cork 1440 on his final go. It was the trick that did the trick: The X Games’ broadcasters deemed it “the most incredible run we have ever seen.”
Beijing is already proving itself a watershed Games for Kiwi winter sports. Zoi (pronounced “Zoey”) Sadowski-Synnott won gold early for the women’s slopestyle event in snowboarding, usurping the American Jamie Anderson’s run of top honors from Sochi and PyeongChang. In fact, Sadowski-Synnott’s win marked New Zealand’s first ever Winter Games victory. She’ll also compete in the big air competition, with qualifying runs beginning on Valentine’s Day.
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