British Snowboard Cross star in superlative form to take 2022/23 overall title, while more British stars shine as World Cup season draws to a close
Britain’s Charlotte Bankes took the second Snowboard Cross Crystal Globe of her career on a dramatic weekend of World Cup action on Canada’s Mt. St. Anne circuit.
Leading the standings going into the final weekend of the 2022/23 World Cup season, Bankes’ sixth straight race win in the weekend’s first race set her on the way to defending the title she first secured last season, with victory secured with a fifth place finish in the last race of the season.
Chloe Trespeuch’s second place finish in the first race left the French racer needing victory in the final competition to overhaul Bankes in the overall standings, with her eventual third place leaving the British star in top spot with 723 World Cup points to Trespeuch’s 650.
The result capped another remarkable season for Bankes, which saw her take victory in six of the nine World Cup meets, as well as a World Championships title in Team Snowboard Cross alongside Huw Nightingale.
Bankes’ back-to-back titles make her the first women’s Snowboard Cross athlete to defend the Crystal Globe since Canada’s Dominique Maltais who took a remarkable four consecutive titles between 2010/11 and 2013/14.
There was further success for Bankes’ Team Snowboard Cross teammate, Huw Nightingale, whose 23rd and 17th place finishes delivered the best World Cup results of his career to date, with the 21-year-old demonstrating impressive progress across the season.
Elsewhere, the Freestyle World Cup season also drew to a close in Silvaplana, with Mia Brookes taking fourth place in Freestyle Snowboard Slopestyle, while in Freeski Slopestyle Kirsty Muir took sixth, Tyler Harding tenth, and Chris McCormick 14th with both Harding and McCormick’s results their best of the season. Brookes’ result, meanwhile, secured third place for her in the overall Snowboard Slopestyle standings on a World Cup debut season capped most memorably by her World Championships title in Bakuriani.
In the Moguls Junior World Championships, Mateo Jeannesson took a brilliant third place in Dual Moguls to back up his fifth place in Single Moguls in a season which has seen the 18-year-old deliver a series of superb performances, while the Telemark World Championships saw Jaz Taylor take a brilliant brace of podiums with third in Classic and second in Parallel Sprint, giving her the best World Championships result of her career.
The Cross-Country squad delivered more impressive 2022/23 results with Andrew Musgrave taking his seventh top-10 place of the season with tenth place in the Lahti World Cup 20km C Mst, while James Clugnet and Andrew Young finished an impressive seventh in the Team Sprint Free in a strong field.
This International Women’s Day, we look at women blazing a trail for GB Snowsport this season
By any measure – and with a few weeks of competition still to go – the 2022-23 season has been a spectacular success for British skiers and snowboarders. And in a year of unprecedented successes, one thing is clear – British women are etching their name into national snowsport history time and time again. This International Women’s Day, we take a closer look at the female athletes blazing a trail for GB Snowsport this season.
Mia Brookes
Where else to begin, except with perhaps the biggest breakout star in British sport this year? Mia Brookes’ name has been spoken with awe and excitement for years now by those in the know, but on her first season on the World Cup circuit the 16 year old’s raw promise has emerged as fully-fledged success.
From a podium on her Slopestyle World Cup debut in Laax in January to her breathtaking Slopestyle World Championships victory in Bakuriani this month, Mia is fast emerging as one of the most exciting sport talents in Britain. Plus, she’s already written her name into the history books as the first woman to land a cab-1440 in competition.
Zoe Atkin
You could be forgiven for thinking Zoe Atkin has been around forever – 2023 is, after all, her fifth year on the World Cup circuit. But the 20-year-old Freeski Halfpipe sensation has really come into her own this year, a rise she puts down in part to giving herself a mental break after the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing last year. And the results speak for themselves: Gold at X Games 2023, and a brace of silvers at the Bakuriani World Championships and Mammoth Mountain World Cup since the turn of the year.
Zoe’s result in Bakuriani saw her follow in sister Izzy’s footseteps be taking back-to-back World Championships medals, having previously taken bronze at the 2021 World Championships.
Charlotte Bankes
What is there to say about Charlotte Bankes, which hasn’t already been said? The reigning Snowboard Cross Crystal Globe holder remains a near-permanent fixture on the World Cup podium, but perhaps more impressive is her resilience and dedication in the face of adversity.
Elimination in the individual Snowboard Cross World Championships contest could have knocked any athlete from their stride, but Charlotte returned alongside Huw Nightingale to deliver a stunning Team Snowboard Cross World Championships title, the first in British history, and ensure she goes down as a back-to-back World Champion, having taken the solo title in 2021.
Kirsty Muir
At 18, Kirsty Muir is already recognised as one of the finest Slopestyle and Big Air skiers in world snowsport, and her performances this year have done nothing to undermine that reputation. Whether it’s double bronze medals at X Games 2023, World Cup silver at Mammoth Mountain in February, or a fourth place that left her agonisingly close to a Big Air medal at the Bakuriani World Championships having suffered an injury ahead of the Slopestyle competition that left any question of participation at the Championships up in the air, Kirsty’s continued excellence marks her out as one of the world’s best despite her young age.
Nina Sparks
In a remarkable season for the Para Snowboard squad, Nina Sparks has shown her promise with a superb overall victory in the Europa Cup competition. In landing the overall title, she joined fellow teammates James Barnes-Miller and Ollie Hill in taking overall titles, with her two compatriots doing so on their respective World Cup circuits.
In a season full of breakthrough performances, the biggest challenges still lie ahead, with the rescheduled La Molina World Championships getting underway this week, and offering another opportunity for Nina to show her talent on the biggest stages.
Menna Fitzpatrick and Katie Guest
Winter Olympic gold medalist. Three time World Champion. Multiple World Cup medalist. Britain’s most decorated Winter Paralympian. And still just 24 years old.
Menna Fitzpatrick is a phenomenon, and her performances alongside her guide, Katie Guest, this season have continued to show why she is so highly respected on the Para Alpine circuit. Another two medals – a silver and a bronze – at the Para Alpine World Championships added to a medal collection which is near unsurpassed in any British winter sport. A legend of the sport, and an icon in British Paralympic history.
Makayla Gerken Schofield
A trailblazer alongside her siblings, Makayla became the second Gerken Schofield (after her brother, Tom) to achieve a World Cup podium with her bronze medal in Val St Come earlier this year, and the first woman in British history to achieve a Moguls World Cup podium.
Indeed, so exceptional have Makayla’s performances been this season that she has only once dipped below the top-10 on the World Cup stage, before delivering another pair of top-10s including a stunning sixth place in Dual Moguls at the Bakuriani World Championships. A fierce competitor, and a superb talent.
Jaz Taylor
One of the most pre-eminent names in the world of Telemark skiing, Jaz Taylor’s performances this season have added another two World Cup podiums to her already astonishing tally of performances over recent seasons.
With World Championships also on the horizon, Jaz has every opportunity to continue her role as one of Britain’s pre-eminent snowsport athletes.
With two gold and one silver medals, Britain emerged from the Bakuriani 2023 Freestyle World Championships on a historic high
After a remarkable two weeks in Bakuriani, Britain’s ski and snowboard athletes returned from the 2023 Freestyle Ski and Snowboard World Championships with two World Championship titles and a stunning silver medal to deliver Britain’s most successful World Championships of all time.
Here, we run down the key results from another history-making moment in a stunning 2022-23 season for GB Snowsport athletes
Gold, Gold, Silver
- Mia Brookes – Freestyle Snowboard Slopestyle – Gold
- Charlotte Bankes and Huw Nightingale – Team Snowboard Cross – Gold
- Zoe Atkin – Freeski Halfpipe – Silver
top-10s
- Makayla Gerken Schofield – Moguls – Ninth
- Makayla Gerken Schofield – Dual Moguls – Sixth
- Mia Brookes – Freestyle Snowboard Big Air – Fifth
- Kirsty Muir – Freeski Big Air – Fourth
Medal Tables
- Tenth – Overall Medal Table
- Third – Snowboard Medal Standings
20-year-old bags Britain’s third medal of record-breaking championships in high quality Halfpipe final
Zoe Atkin, the 2021 World Championships Halfpipe bronze medalist, delivered a brilliant silver medal winning performance in the Women’s Freeski Halfpipe competition at the Bakuriani Freestyle World Championships this morning.
Landing a score of 94.50 from her second run, Zoe was leading until the penultimate run of the competition, before being overhauled by Hanna Faulhaber’s 95.75. The result means Zoe follows in her sister Izzy’s footsteps by winning back-to-back World Championships medals, having done so in consecutive World Championships in 2017 and 2019.
Speaking afterwards, Zoe said:
“I’m really stoked. I’m three for three on podiums this year, so that’s really exciting. It was pretty tough today; I had really bad training, and didn’t really land any of my tricks, so I’m just stoked to be able to put one down today.
“I had a rough couple of months after the Olympics, but I took some time off in the summer and went to school in the fall, which was a nice mental reset. It’s goot to get a little break, come back more excited about it. Obviously the podium means so much to me, but I’m so hyped just to be able to say I’m excited to ski again.”
Vicky Gosling, GB Snowsport Chief Executive, said:
“We’re absolutely delighted for Zoe this morning. At just 20 years old, to have her second World Championships medal under her belt is an amazing achievement, and another huge moment in what’s proving to be an astonishing season for British skiers and snowboarders.”
Pat Sharples, GB Snowsport Head Coach, said:
“This was another incredible performance from Zoe which continues her best season ever. After her win at X Games she was really confident coming into this event and it showed in her skiing. We’re all super proud of Zoe.”
More to follow…
British athletes continue to rewrite the history books in another week of storming successes
Mia Brookes made snowboarding history in Bakuriani this week, where she became not only Britain’s youngest ever Freestyle World Champion, but the youngest Snowboard World Champion in world history, and the first woman to ever land a cab 1440 in competition. In doing so, the 16-year-old delivered on the rich promise that she’s shown since childhood, and opened the book on a new chapter in Freestyle Snowboarding. Read more about Mia’s stunning World Championships gold medal winning performance here.
Medals were also in the offing for the Para Alpine squad, with Menna Fitzpatrick and Katie Guest taking a hard-fought bronze in the first of two back-to-back Kitzbuehel Slalom World Cup races. The site of so much of Britain’s recent Alpine success, Fitzpatrick and Guest and Neil Simpson and Rob Poth will be hoping for more in the week’s second set of races today.
Britain’s Team Sprint pair of James Clugnet and Andrew Young took the second best Cross-Country World Championships result in British history with a stunning sixth place in Planica. Coming into the Championships fresh off a season which had already seen a World Cup top-10 for the pairing in Livigno last month, Clugnet and Young’s final time of 18:00.66 left them more than five seconds clear of the German team in seventh, and confirmed the nation’s second best Cross-Country World Championships result, behind only Andrew Musgrave’s benchmark setting 50km fourth place in Lahti in 2017. The result also marks the first time that Britain has secured a top-10 World Championships finish in a Cross-Country Sprint discipline.
Andrew Musgrave’s World Championships got underway with 14th place in the Skiathlon 15km/15km C/F in a race which also saw Joe Davies take 40th place on his World Championships debut.
Personal records were also being set elsewhere in the Freestyle World Championships in Bakuriani, where Makayla Gerken Schofield took a brace of top-10s with ninth place in Moguls and sixth in Dual Moguls. The results were Makayla’s eight and ninth top-10 finishes of the season, with the Dual Moguls performance coming through an epic Quarter Finals battle against the imperious Perrine Laffont, a five-time World Champion and 2018 Olympic Winter Games gold medallist.
Elsewhere in Bakuriani, Mateo Jeannesson finished just outside the top-20 in both Moguls and Dual Moguls with 21st and 24th place finishes, Will Feneley came 25th and 27th, and Tom Gerken Schofield finished 33rd and 28th. In Freeski Slopestyle, Chris McCormick and Tyler Harding both finished outside of the qualification spots coming 16th and 20th in their respective heats. A weather-interrupted Ski Cross World Championships race, meanwhile, saw Ollie Davies finish in 27th place, having earlier qualified in 13th spot.
With the Alpine World Championships concluded, the World Cup circuit shifted focus to the US for the Lake Tahoe World Cup. In a dramatic Slalom race, Britain returned two top-20 finishes with Dave Ryding taking 16th and Billy Major a fantastic 18th place including the third fastest second run of the race, giving him the joint best World Cup finish of his career.
Katie Summerhayes, one of Britain’s leading Freestyle skiers and best loved snowsport athletes, confirmed her retirement last week at the age of 27 after more than a decade representing the nation.
Katie, who made her World Championships debut in 2011, departs the sport as a three-time Winter Olympian, the first female British skier to win a Freestyle World Championships medal, and a fixture at the top of the sport for more than a decade.
A World Championships debutant in 2011, Katie delivered major podium moments throughout her career, including a first World Cup podium with silver in Silvaplana in 2013, bronze and gold at successive World Junior Ski Championships in 2013 and 2014, a history-making silver at World Championships in Kreischberg in 2015, and a final World Cup podium in Stubai in 2017. Katie’s last competitive performance in March 2022 saw her come so close to one more podium with a brilliant World Cup fourth place at the site of her first ever World Cup podium in Silvaplana.
Over the course of her career, Katie competed alongside some of Britain’s greatest ever Freestyle athletes, including her sister Molly, a fellow Olympian at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang. In doing so, Katie swiftly became one of the most popular and respected members of the British Freestyle scene, known both for her ability on the snow, and her positivity and warmth around the camp.
GB Snowsport Head Coach, Pat Sharples, paid tribute to Katie, saying:
“Katie is an absolute legend of British Freestyle skiing. She’s a history maker and one of the best skiers this country has ever produced but, more than that, she’s an amazing person who’s done so much for the sport and for the team all the way through her career.
“I’ve had the pleasure of seeing Katie grow as an athlete and as a person, and you couldn’t wish for a better athlete on the team; we’ll really miss having her around camp. What Katie’s achieved will mean she’s remembered forever in the sport as one of Britain’s finest.”
Everyone at GB Snowsport wishes Katie well in her retirement.
Katie Summerhayes – Career Highlights
- February 2011 – Makes first World Championships appearance at Park City, USA, finishing 11th in Slopestyle and 14th in Halfpipe
- January 2012 – Comes fifth representing Team GB at Youth Olympic Winter Games in Kuehtai, Austria
- March 2012 – Top-10 on World Cup debut in Mammoth Mountain
- February 2013 – First World Cup podium taking silver in Silvaplana
- March 2013 – Comes so close to World Championships podium, finishing fourth in Voss-Myrkdalen, Norway
- March 2013 – Takes podium at World Junior Ski Championships in Chiesa, Italy, with Slopestyle bronze
- February 2014 – Competes for Team GB at Olympic Winter Games for the first time, finishing seventh in Slopestyle in Sochi
- March 2014 – Returns to World Junior Ski Championships in Chiesa, Italy, taking gold
- January 2015 – Becomes Britain’s first female Freestyle Skiing World Championships medalist with silver in Kreischberg World Championships
- February 2018 – Selected for second Olympic Winter Games, finishing seventh in PyeongChang
- March 2021 – Makes fourth appearance at World Championships, competing in both Slopestyle and Big Air in Aspen, USA
- February 2022 – Finishes 13th in Big Air and ninth in Slopestyle in Beijing Olympic Winter Games
- March 2022 – Finishes fourth in final World Cup appearance in Silvaplana
The BRITS, the UK’s official Snowboard and Freeski Championships, will return to Cairngorm Mountain in April
A core part of Britain’s Freestyle Snowsport history, the BRITS returns to the UK on 1-2 April 2023 at the nation’s biggest resort, Cairngorm Mountain.
The event, which has previously welcomed current and former British World Cup, World Championships, and Olympic Games athletes including Billy Morgan, Kirsty Muir, and Mia Brookes, will see hundreds of Freestyle athletes compete for the Ellis Brigham British Freeski Championships and the TSA British Snowboard Championships, as well as Banked Slalom and Rail Jam titles. Competitions will take place across two days, with Saturday given over to Freeski and Snowboard Slopestyle competitions, while Sunday hosts the Banked Slalom and Rail Jam contests.
Registration for the BRITS 2023 is now open with info, including event programme, online registration, lift passess, accommodation recommendations, and much more available at www.britssnow.com
Five 2022/23 World Cup podium holders have been named in a 13 athlete British squad who will travel to Bakuriani for the 2023 Freestyle World Championships this month
Zoe Atkin (Freeski Halfpipe World Cup Gold, Mammoth Mountain; X Games Superpipe Gold), Mia Brookes (Snowboard Slopestyle World Cup Silver, Laax), Makayla Gerken-Schofield (Dual Moguls World Cup Bronze, Val St. Come), Kirsty Muir (Freeski Slopestyle World Cup Silver, Mammoth Mountain; X Games Slopestyle Bronze; X Games Big Air Bronze) and reigning World Champion Charlotte Bankes (Snowboard Cross World Cup Gold, Cervinia and Cortina, World Cup Bronze Cervinia) headline a squad that features two debutants in Brookes and Beijing 2022 Snowboard Cross Olympian Huw Nightingale.
Freeski
A four-person Freeski Slopestyle and Big Air squad brings a collective 15 World Championships under their belts with 2019 Slopestyle World Champion, James Woods, lining up alongside Tyler Harding in his fourth World Championships, Chris McCormick competing for the third time and Kirsty Muir in her second Championships. Zoe Atkin, meanwhile, will compete in her third World Championships in Freeski Halfpipe, having taken bronze in the 2021 Championships in Aspen.
Snowboard Cross and Ski Cross
Charlotte Bankes and Huw Nightingale will reprise their Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games in the Snowboard Cross Team Event, while Bankes will be looking to defend the World Championships title she secured at the 2021 World Championships in Idre Fjall.
In Ski Cross, Ollie Davies will be the sole British representative on his third World Championships, having taken an exceptional fourth place at the 2021 Idre Fjall Championships.
Freestyle Snowboard
On her World Championships debut, Mia Brookes will be the sole British Freestyle Snowboard competitor, where she is set to compete in both the Slopestyle and Big Air competitions. Brookes comes into the Championships on the back of an outstanding debut World Cup season which has seen her notch three top-10 finishes, including a silver medal at her last World Cup in Laax in January.
Moguls
The Moguls competitions will Makayla Gerken-Schofield, Will Feneley, Tom Gerken-Schofield and Mateo Jeannesson representing British interests, in a season which has seen Makayla Gerken-Schofield take the first World Cup podium of her career, Jeannesson break into the World Cup top-20 for the first time, and Feneley match his best ever World Cup result with an eighth place finish in Dual Moguls at this month’s Deer Valley World Cup. The team will be looking to Tom Gerken-Schofield’s sixth place at the 2021 Almaty World Championships for inspiration with a rich combination of experience and form to draw on from the season to date.
Freestyle Snowboarders Maisie Hill and Katie Ormerod, both of whom met selection qualification criteria, miss out on the Championships through injury.
The Bakuriani Freestyle World Championships begin on 18 February with the first British athlete due to be in action on 23 February, with the Ski Cross Qualification rounds.
Full Squad Selections
Snowboard Cross
- Charlotte Bankes
- Huw Nightingale
Ski Cross
- Ollie Davies
Freeski – Slopestyle and Big Air
- Tyler Harding
- Chris McCormick
- Kirsty Muir
- James Woods
Freeski – Halfpipe
- Zoe Atkin
Freestyle Snowboard – Slopestyle and Big Air
- Mia Brookes
Moguls
- Will Feneley
- Makayla Gerken-Schofield
- Tom Gerken-Schofield
- Mateo Jeannesson
Header Image: Kirsty Muir competes during the Women’s Freeski Big Air Finals on day three of the Toyota U.S. Grand Prix at Copper Mountain Resort on December 16, 2022 in Copper Mountain, Colorado. (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images)
GB Snowsport athletes added another four podiums to what is fast becoming one of the country’s most successful ski and snowboard seasons in history on another weekend of gripping competition.
Topping the bill, Snowboard Cross Crystal Globe holder Charlotte Bankes recorded her second World Cup victory of the season at the Cortina d’Ampezzo World Cup in a typically dominant display of Snowboard Cross racing. The result – her first World Cup win in Cortina – moves Bankes up to second in the season’s overall standings, behind Chloe Trespeuch who Bankes beat into third place with Faye Gulini taking second spot, and Manon Petit Lenoir fourth. In the men’s races, Huw Nightingale came in in 41st place.
Fresh from their X Games heroics, Kirsty Muir and Zoe Atkin also both returned to the World Cup podium this weekend at the Mammoth Mountain Freestyle World Cup. In the Freeski Slopestyle competition, Muir put down a superb demonstration of Slopestyle skiing to take second place in the standings, matching in the process her career best World Cup result from Aspen in 2021. Muir’s score of 84.00 left her just 2.00 points behind Johanne Killi in top spot, and continues a run of form which has seen Muir finish inside the top-8 in seven consecutive World Cup competitions, dating back to March 2021.
In Freeski Halfpipe, Zoe Atkin took the third World Cup podium of her career and joined Muir in taking second place on the podium in her first World Cup competition of the season, straight off the back of her spectacular victory at X Games last weekend. A huge score of 92.75 was only just beaten by China’s Kexin Zhang who topped the podium with 93.50 in a contest that demonstrated again the reasons that Atkin, at just 20 years of age, is so highly rated within the sport.
In the men’s competitions, James Pouch bagged his best ever World Cup result with 32nd place in Slopestyle, just ahead of Tayler Harding in 35th and Tom Greenway, in only the third World Cup entry of his career, coming in 43rd.
On the Europa Cup circuit, meanwhile, Ash Clayton took a brilliant double podium with second place in Big Air and third place in Slopestyle at La Clusaz EC. The results gave Clayton the first EC podiums of their career, having competed in only one previous EC level competition.
Laurie Taylor also notched a career best World Cup result in the Chamonix Slalom World Cup, ending the weekend in 23rd position. Taylor, who is part of the squad that will travel to the Alpine World Championships, was joined in the second run by Dave Ryding who was pushing hard until a straddle prematurely ended his race. Billy Major, meanwhile, was unfortunate not to qualify finishing not far outside of the second run qualification spots.
The weekend’s final British podium fell to Telemark star Jaz Taylor who took third place in the second of two World Cup Sprint races in Les Contamines-Montjoie for her first podium of the season. The earlier of the week’s races saw her finish fifth while, in the men’s races, Timote Gough took a promising 17th place finish.
James Clugnet and Andrew Young continued their preparations for the Cross-Country World Championships with three races in the Toblach World Cup, the pick of the results coming in a 12th place finish as part of a FIS team in the 4 x 7.5km Relay. In the Sprint F, Clugnet took 28th and Young 41st, while Young finished in 36th spot in the 10km F with Clugnet in 57th.
Meanwhile, the Moguls squad travelled to Deer Valley for the latest in their World Cup tour. Will Feneley had the best of the weekend’s action with 8th place in the Dual Moguls competition, matching his best ever World Cup result from Alpe d’Huez in December. Makayla Gerken Schofield came 11th in the Single Moguls competition, Mateo Jeannesson finished 19th in Dual Moguls and 21st in Single Moguls, and Thomas Gerken-Schofield 25th in Single Moguls.
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