Nico Porteous: Kiwi freestyle skier on his retirement from competitive free skiing

Nico Porteous is walking away from competitive free skiing, retiring at age 23. 

The Kiwi Olympian has admitted his 2022 Olympic gold and 2018 bronze in the freeski halfpipe have contributed to his decision. 

He told Mike Hosking he set out with a number of goals when beginning his career at age 12, and he’s now achieved those goals.  

“I feel as if the ‘more, more, more’ mentality can often lead to doing damage or leaving a sour taste in your mouth,” Porteous said. 

“So I just wanted to call it.” 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Nikkio Portius. Right, so our most successful sports athletes, no
sports athletes are deciding for now anyway to move to
other things. At the grand old age of twenty three,
sixteen years old, he was for the bronze in twenty
eighteen and the free sky, the free ski half pipe.
Then he came back four years later in Beijing got
the gold. But now the Olympics and the halfpipe are
and the rearview mirror Nico Portius is with us. Good morning,

(00:20):
good morning. I'm sure it's mind very well, indeed, thank you.
I'm sure it's one of those things you sort of
build up and think about and then it goes public.
Do you feel good now you've done it?

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Yeah? Do Yeah? Feel really good. And I made the
decision actually last August, and yeah, just something that I
wanted to set on and make sure that it was
exactly what I wanted to do.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
Who'd you talk to my family?

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Yeah, spoke to my mum, my dad, and my brother,
and then also spoke to my sports site Dave Colin.
So yeah, I had a really good team around me
and a great support network of people to help make
sure that it made the right decision.

Speaker 1 (00:59):
And how many of those people you talked to said well,
it's up to you, Nico, what do you think? And
you went, ah, I want something more than that.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
Kind of all of them, to be honest, because at
the end of the day, like they've always been super
supportive of me and always backs me, and so they
wanted to be one hundred percent my call. They didn't
want to influence in it in any way. And yeah,
I guess I'm just really lucky to have that sort
of support network around me.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
Did you waver it all from August on? Nah?

Speaker 2 (01:31):
I actually just wanted to sit on it and was
kind of scared to do the media announcement, to be honest, Yeah,
there was obviously, you know, there's obviously times when you
when you make the call and you're so young and
still healthy that you're like, oh, when times get hard,
you're sort of like, oh, maybe I could go back
to the option that I know and that you know,
I wake up and I know what's going to happen
the next day, or I know what's going to happen

(01:52):
in six months time. But yeah, I feel comfortable with
the decision now and feel yeah, ready to move on.

Speaker 1 (01:59):
I'd asked you at say fifteen, sixteen years of age.
Did you have any inclination that this was going to
be a shortish term thing or at that point you
didn't know, And if you didn't know, at what point
in your career did you start thinking I've got other
stuff to do.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
Yeah. Look, I didn't know. I was just fully in
what I was doing. And I guess, you know, looking back,
I've been in the competitive skiing world since I was,
you know, ten years old, and so that's like over
half my life, which has been pretty crazy, So it's
kind of all I've known. And I guess, you know,
through over that five gurd you do a lot of
growing and a lot of changing. Yeah. I just kind

(02:40):
of lost that competitive passion. I guess, you know, as
you do over over those years, like you changes.

Speaker 1 (02:47):
At person, So you felt that there was one of
my questions. Did it at any point become a grind?

Speaker 2 (02:53):
Yeah, definitely. I mean it was always a grind, but
I just I just kind of lost that competitive drive
at the end of the day.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
Can you can you explain that or you don't need
to explain it.

Speaker 2 (03:04):
Yeah, No, it was it was a little bit around
like I just lost the drive for the results. The
results didn't really motivate me that much anymore. And to
be honest, when I achieved the results some you know
later on in the career, they didn't quite have the
same impact as they did. It was way more. I
was way more enjoying pushing myself and you know, trying

(03:28):
to be the best skier that I could be rather
than trying to be the best skier on day.

Speaker 1 (03:33):
It's a very mature you. Yeah, don't you reckon that.
That's a very mature of you to come to at
such a young age, because I'm assuming most young people,
once you win one, you want to win more.

Speaker 2 (03:46):
Yeah, I don't know. I sit out with a number
of goals at the start of my career when I
was twelve. I said these goals and I achieved those goals,
and yeah, that's kind of I don't know. I feel
as if the more and more and more intelity you
can often lead to a doing damage or moving a
sour taste in your mouth. And so I just wanted
to call it yeah when I had, when I felt good,

(04:09):
and yeah.

Speaker 1 (04:11):
So the success was the success was part of it.
So in other words, you did have goals, so so
so if you had had not attained what you had attained,
you'd still maybe still be at it.

Speaker 2 (04:22):
Yeah, yeah, I think so. Yeah, Well, for sure.

Speaker 1 (04:25):
The business of video production all that sort of stuff
I'm reading about, is is that a real path? Is
that something you're you're passionate about it and you still
don't know?

Speaker 2 (04:33):
No, No, that's something that I'm that I'm super passionate about.
After the twenty twenty two games of Blue Maceio and
coming back the season after I've spent a whole year
filming and working on a video production, and so it's
it's a it's a real path in skiing, and we're
lucky that our sport has, you know, multiple avenues outside
of competing and something that I really look forward to

(04:56):
to pushing.

Speaker 1 (04:57):
What I've enjoyed about you guys, and I think it's
applicable for many in New Zealand. Is that clearly something's
gone on in Central Otago by way of a production
pipeline for people who are good at this sort of stuff.
You've enjoyed it. I take it it's going well. You
leave the sport in good heart? Is that fair?

Speaker 2 (05:15):
Yeah? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely in good heart. Feel
still have the same really positive feelings towards it, and yeah, are.

Speaker 1 (05:26):
You a memories guy? Are you going to stand at
a pub and go, oh yeah, I used to do
that when I went to the Olympics.

Speaker 2 (05:32):
No, no way. Someone if someone wants to come and
talk to me about it, or you know, one of
my friends and family brings it up, but I'm.

Speaker 1 (05:39):
Not going to Yeah, good stuff, all right mate, go well,
appreciate it very much. Nico Portius, you get raised that
way or not? Or is that just a jeanette? Which
which way? Well? In the like, he is what he is,
isn't he? I mean, he's such a cool guy that
to be able to genuinely I mean I might be
misreading him. He might be a year and a half,

(06:00):
be a complete basket case and want to desperately get
back on the skis and get to a half pipe.
I don't know, but taking it as word this morning,
are you raised that way? Or is it inherent in
you that you can spend your whole life going towards something,
getting there and then going more than happy just to
move gracefully on because it's massive. I couldn't. Well, as

(06:21):
we can see, you certainly haven't massive. Don't bring it
back to me because I'm struggling at the moment. For
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