{"id":559661,"date":"2026-08-05T10:32:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T10:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/559661\/"},"modified":"2026-08-05T10:32:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T10:32:09","slug":"top-coach-leaves-snow-sports-new-zealand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/559661\/","title":{"rendered":"Top coach leaves Snow Sports New Zealand"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/2a9e9c_45ce2312b5e54ca9843aeff52fce14b1~mv2.jpg\" alt=\"Tom Willmott is leave Snow Sports NZ after taking the sport to new highs PHOTO: SNOWSPORTSNZ\" style=\"width:100%;height:100%;object-fit:cover;object-position:50% 50%;max-width:100%;position:absolute;left:0;top:0\" data-pin-url=\"https:\/\/www.nzsportswire.com\/post\/top-coach-leaves-snow-sports-new-zealand\" data-pin-media=\"https:\/\/static.wixstatic.com\/media\/2a9e9c_45ce2312b5e54ca9843aeff52fce14b1~mv2.jpg\/v1\/fill\/w_1200,h_675,al_c,q_85\/2a9e9c_45ce2312b5e54ca9843aeff52fce14b1~mv2.jpg\" draggable=\"false\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Tom Willmott is leave Snow Sports NZ after taking the sport to new highs PHOTO: SNOWSPORTSNZ<\/p>\n<p class=\"_8C1-J ZH-gN JP8V2 QncKy\" dir=\"auto\" id=\"viewer-72s6230\" tabindex=\"-1\">Respected snowboard and freeski coach Tom Willmott is leaving Snow Sports New Zealand after a long tenure that included mentoring the country&#8217;s most decorated Winter Olympian Zoi Sadowski-Synnott.<\/p>\n<p class=\"_8C1-J ZH-gN JP8V2 QncKy\" dir=\"auto\" id=\"viewer-rcc8z4\" tabindex=\"-1\">Snow Sports New Zealand (SSNZ) confirmed Willmott has resigned from his role as head coach of Snow Sports New Zealand&#8217;s Park &amp; Pipe programme to pursue new opportunities in high-performance snow sports.<\/p>\n<p class=\"_8C1-J ZH-gN JP8V2 QncKy\" dir=\"auto\" id=\"viewer-1xmov7\" tabindex=\"-1\">&#8220;Tom has made an outstanding contribution to snow sports in New Zealand,&#8221; said SSNZ chief executive Nic Cavanagh.<\/p>\n<p class=\"_8C1-J ZH-gN JP8V2 QncKy\" dir=\"auto\" id=\"viewer-jrrid10\" tabindex=\"-1\">&#8220;He has played a central role in building New Zealand&#8217;s Park and Pipe programme into the internationally respected and successful programme it is today, and in supporting the development and achievements of many athletes, coaches and support staff.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"_8C1-J ZH-gN JP8V2 QncKy\" dir=\"auto\" id=\"viewer-n06dk13\" tabindex=\"-1\">&#8220;We thank Tom for his commitment and contribution to SSNZ and to snow sports in New Zealand and wish him every success for the future.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"_8C1-J ZH-gN JP8V2 QncKy\" dir=\"auto\" id=\"viewer-3bos216\" tabindex=\"-1\">Willmott, who has also coached Olympic medallists Nico Porteous, and Luca Harrington, said high-performance snow sports in New Zealand had been a huge part of his life for more than 20 years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"_8C1-J ZH-gN JP8V2 QncKy\" dir=\"auto\" id=\"viewer-5oamc19\" tabindex=\"-1\">&#8220;And SSNZ had been a significant part of that journey. I am incredibly proud of what we have achieved together and believe snow sports in New Zealand is in a great place, with significant potential across multiple disciplines.<\/p>\n<p class=\"_8C1-J ZH-gN JP8V2 QncKy\" dir=\"auto\" id=\"viewer-oz5u622\" tabindex=\"-1\">&#8220;I am now looking ahead to the next chapter and want to say a special thank you to everyone who has been part of the journey,&#8221; Willmott said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"_8C1-J ZH-gN JP8V2 QncKy\" dir=\"auto\" id=\"viewer-qb3pc25\" tabindex=\"-1\">Cavanagh said the start of a new Olympic cycle naturally provided an opportunity to reflect on how best to position the organisation&#8217;s people, programmes and coaching structures for long-term success.<\/p>\n<p class=\"_8C1-J ZH-gN JP8V2 QncKy\" dir=\"auto\" id=\"viewer-lc8uf28\" tabindex=\"-1\">He said SSNZ would continue to review and develop its coaching model to ensure it was well placed to support athlete development and performance outcomes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tom Willmott is leave Snow Sports NZ after taking the sport to new highs PHOTO: SNOWSPORTSNZ Respected snowboard&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":559662,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[111,43,139,69],"class_list":["post-559661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=559661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/559662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=559661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=559661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=559661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}