New Zealand had to wait 26 years to win its second Winter Olympic medal but less than two hours for its third thanks to 16-year-olds Zoi Sadowski-Synnott and Nico Porteous.
Freeskier Porteous claimed halfpipe bronze after Sadowski-Synnott won bronze in the snowboard big air in PyeongChang on Thursday.
Sadowski-Synnott landed a double wildcat (two mid-air backflips with a grab) and a switch back 900 (2.5 rotations) to become the second ever Kiwi Winter Olympic medallist.
Annelise Coberger was the first, taking silver in Albertville in 1992 in alpine skiing slalom.
"I can't really feel much right now. It hasn't really hit me," Sadowski-Synnott said.
"I've never done dub cat and switch back nine in a final before so I was so happy.
"That's the best I think I've ever done that trick (900). I was just so happy, I didn't even care about the score.
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"It's been pretty crazy. I'm so, so grateful for the experience. It's just not like any other comp. It's intense and there's so much hype."
Porteous, who scraped into the halfpipe final 11th, laid down a sublime second run, scoring 94.8 to finish behind Americans David Wise and Alex Ferreira who won gold and silver respectively on Thursday.
Porteous held off countryman and flagbearer Beau-James Wells (91.6) in fourth, while Byron Wells was a late scratching after injuring his knee in the warm-up.
"In my dreams I couldn't have done a better run. That was insane," Porteous said.
"It was my first time ever doing five doubles (corks) in a run. I had never linked any of those combos before today."
One of the Kiwis' best medal prospects, Sadowski-Synnott failed to make an impact in her other event, the slopestyle, finishing 13th in windy conditions last week
But her Olympic success comes as no surprise.
She won big air World Cup bronze in February last year and slopestyle gold the following month before claiming slopestyle bronze in her home World Cup event in September.
Sadowski-Synnott was eighth after her opening attempt, the double wildcat, was scored 65.5 but maintained her composure to land the 900 which put her briefly in the silver medal position.
Austrian Anna Gasser, the reigning world champion, edged two-time gold medallist Jamie Anderson of the USA to earn the first big air Olympic title with the last jump of the day.
Gasser stomped the last of her three jumps, a double cork 1080 that saw her flip twice while spinning three times, to score 96 for the best jump of the day.
New Zealand registered its third top-five finish of the Games the previous night when speed skaters Peter Dobbin, Reyon Kay and Shane Dobbin were fourth in the team pursuit, sparking fears its failure to win a medal could extend to at least 30 years.
But chef de mission Pete Wardell remained confident the country would not leave PyeongChang empty-handed.
"We lost some of our big stars before they came. I was saying the young people will step up and do us proud," Wardell told NZ Newswire.
"Two 16-year-olds on the podium is fantastic."
New Zealand may be on track for its most successful Winter Games with snowboarder Carlos Garcia Knight qualifying top for Saturday's big air final.
AAP
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