Zazi Betari Landman was born in Jakarta, a city that has never seen a snowflake. Right now, she's on a halfpipe in Laax, Switzerland, learning tricks from a man who won Olympic gold for doing them.

That contradiction is the whole story. Indonesia doesn't have a winter sports tradition, a ski resort, or a national team for snowboarding. It has Zazi.

Zazi Betari, 14, is widely reported as Indonesia's first snowboarding athlete, born in Jakarta on May 9, 2012 to an Indonesian mother and a Dutch father. She currently splits her time between Laax (Switzerland), Barcelona (Spain), and Bali, training toward a shot at representing Indonesia at the 2030 Winter Olympics in France.

At a glance:

• Age: 14 (born May 9, 2012, Jakarta)
• Discipline: Halfpipe snowboarding
• Coach: Iouri Podladtchikov, 2014 Sochi Olympic halfpipe gold medalist
• Goal: 2030 Winter Olympics, France

Credit : Zazi Landman training in Cardrona, New Zealand. Photo: Supplied 

How did a kid from Jakarta end up snowboarding?

Zazi started on skis at age four, during a family trip to the mountains. A year later, watching other riders launch off jumps and spin through the air, she turned to her parents and said she wanted to do that instead. She switched to snowboarding at seven and never looked back.

By eight, she was training in an adult snowboarding class. By ten, she was competing internationally. That's a fast climb for a sport her home country has essentially no infrastructure for  every session means a flight, a foreign coach, and a training base thousands of kilometers from Jakarta.

Who is training her, and why does that matter?
Her coach is Iouri Podladtchikov, the Swiss rider who beat Shaun White to win halfpipe gold at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. That's not a local ski instructor it's one of the most decorated names in the sport, based at Laax, one of the world's top freestyle snowboarding training grounds.

Training doesn't stop at Laax. According to her team, Zazi also spends time training in France, Japan, and New Zealand, chasing snow and competition seasons across both hemispheres.

What has she overcome to get here?
The road hasn't been clean. During a competition in Font-Romeu, France, Zazi took a bad fall that injured her knee and ended her season. She spent three months on crutches and, by her own admission, briefly thought about quitting.

She didn't. She went through physiotherapy and got back on the board.

"I want to be a professional snowboard athlete. One of my biggest dreams is to compete at the Winter Olympics and represent Indonesia."

Is Indonesia actually backing her?
Yes, and it's recent. In October 2025, Indonesia's Minister of Youth and Sports, Erick Thohir, and his deputy, Taufik Hidayat, received Zazi at the Kemenpora office in Senayan, Jakarta, to publicly back her push toward the 2030 Games. The Indonesian Olympic Committee (NOC Indonesia) is also working with her toward membership eligibility with the International Ski and Snowboard Federation, the body that governs Olympic qualification.

Brands have taken notice too. Zazi rides for Roxy, and documents her training  early mornings, wipeouts, the sound of a board carving fresh powder  through her Instagram, @zazi.betari, where she's built a following well beyond Indonesia's snowboarding scene, which is to say, well beyond zero.

The detail that sticks
At age four, before she could properly ski, Zazi coined her own rallying cry: "Putchi Patchi." It's now the phrase she and other young riders shout before dropping in. A word a toddler made up in the mountains is now attached to a kid trying to put a tropical country on the Winter Olympics map.