In light of the recent news from Nico Porteous putting a halt to his competitive career, The Morning Rumble took the chance to catch up with him about it.
Porteous has had a decorated career already, claiming a bronze at the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang in 2018 as a 16-year-old, making him the youngest ever Kiwi Olympic medalist.
He then won gold in Beijing in 2022, this time as a 20-year-old, when he landed a left and right double corked 1620 combination to become the champ.
Clearly, this guy’s kinda the shit, hence why Bryce very bluntly asked him, “Who do you think you are retiring at 23.. I mean I’ve been here 25 years… it’s a kick in the face man”.
Nico took this like a champ, but took the time to explain that he’s been seriously competing since he was ten, so he’s already “been around the block”. He described the feeling of “being at the top” of his sport, and how standing next to 30 year olds on the podium, he “felt old”.
He knew it was time to hang up the Skis when he started to see “generations come and generations go”.
Nico knew this was his fate last August, but took a year to mull on it and “make sure it was the right call”.
Since he’s not going to be tearing up the slopes competitively, he’s looking forward to trying something different.
When asked about his plans, he said he’s going to be “moving more into the media side of things, which will be cool”.
Bryce didn’t even let the poor man continue, pointing out that “he’s coming for our jobs now,” and Nico hit back with a savage “maybe I’ll force you to retire”.
Nico man, Rog is already cheating on us, don’t give him any encouragement.
The 23-year-old says his sponsors “support me super well”, so he’ll have the opportunity to create, and work on, events, as well as have a hand in product development.
Nico was just 14 years old when he became part of Team Red Bull, so he’s had plenty of time to live out some pretty sick experiences, including an all-expenses paid trip to Monaco F1.
Not bad.
A large majority of the population will never know what it feels like to earn a gold medal for your country, so the Rumble had to ask Nico while he was here.
“It feels crazy,” he said. “When you’re standing on the podium listening to a national anthem, and you know you’ve achieved something that you’ve worked for, for so long… It's incredible.
It’s such a sense of pride… You know that you’ve sacrificed a lot.. And I think that feeling of standing there sort of symbolises all of that within yourself.
So good as always to have Nico on, we’re very proud of the decision he has made.
We can’t wait for the day he teaches Rog a thing or two on the slopes. - we'll leave you with this goodie
