After a period of non-programme activity following the conclusion of the 2022/23 winter season, GB Snowsport squads are now back in pre-season training.
With the 2023/24 season approaching quickly and the Freestyle World Junior Championships already on the horizon, pre-season training camps have been confirmed in the following locations while the Alpine and Cross-Country Squads have both already completed a number of pre-season camps in Peer and Bo.
Freeski
Location: Perisher, Australia
Dates: 16 August – 3 September
Athletes Attending: Connie Brogden, Caoimhe Heavey, Chris McCormick, Kirsty Muir, Mia Rennie
Location: Cardona, New Zealand
Dates: 25 August – 29 September
Athletes Attending: Zoe Atkin, Connie Brogden, Tom Greenway, Caoimhe Heavey, Kirsty Muir, Mia Rennie
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Freestyle Snowboard
Location: Perisher, Australia
Dates: 2 – 23 August
Athletes Attending: Mia Brookes, Billy Cockrell, Charlie Lane
Location: Cardona, New Zealand
Dates: 20 August – 12 September
Athletes Attending: Mia Brookes, Charlie Lane, Katie Ormerod (completing return-to-snow protocols)
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Moguls
Location: Whistler, Canada – Water Ramp Camp
Dates: 8 – 30 July
Athletes Attending: Cali Carr, Will Feneley, Makayla Gerken Schofield, Mateo Jeannesson
Location: Perisher, Australia
Dates: 18 August – 5 September
Athletes Attending: Will Feneley, Makayla Gerken Schofield, Mateo Jeannesson
Location: Hintertux, Austria
Dates: 3 – 13 October
Athletes Attending: Will Feneley, Makayla Gerken Schofield, Mateo Jeannesson
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Ski Cross
Location: Corralco, Chile
Dates: 13 – 26 September
Athlete Attending: Ollie Davies
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Snowboard Cross
Location: Corralco, Chile
Dates: 9 – 29 September
Athletes Attending: Charlotte Bankes, Huw Nightingale
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Cross Country
Location: Blink Festival, Sandnes, Norway
Dates: 31 July – 6 August
Athletes Attending: James Clugnet, Joe Davies, Andrew Musgrave
Location: Hemsedal, Norway
Dates: 10 – 15 September
Athletes Attending: James Clugnet, Joe Davies, Andrew Musgrave, Andrew Young
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Alpine
Location: Saas Fee, Switzerland – Men’s Slalom Camp
Dates: 13 August – 2 September
Athletes Attending: Billy Major, Dave Ryding, Laurie Taylor
Location: Saas Fee, Switzerland – Van Deer Camp
Dates: 7 – 15 August
Athlete Attending: Charlie Raposo
Location: Saas Fee, Switzerland – Men’s Slalom Camp
Dates: 10 – 30 September
Athletes Attending: Billy Major, Dave Ryding, Laurie Taylor
Location: Saas Fee, Switzerland – Women’s Alpine Camp
Dates: 22 August – 1 September
Athlete Attending: Charlie Guest
Location: Argentina – Van Deer Camp
Dates: 23 August – 16 September
Athlete Attending: Charlie Raposo
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Para Alpine
Location: Oslo/Fonne – Norway
Dates: 27 July – 12 August
Athletes Attending: Shona Brownlee, Menna Fitzpatrick, Katie Guest, Adam Hall, Louise Harrison, Michael Kear
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Para Snowboard
Location: Perisher, Australia
Dates: 20 July – 17 August
Athletes Attending: James Barnes-Miller, Matt Hamilton (Invitational Athlete)
GB Snowsport confirm the British Freeski, Freestyle Snowboard, Moguls, Snowboard Cross, and Ski Cross Squads for the 2023/24 season
Featuring three reigning Snowboard World Champions in Mia Brookes (Slopestyle, Bakuriani 2023), and Charlotte Bankes and Huw Nightingale (Team Snowboard Cross, Bakuriani 2023) and nine World Cup medallists, the six World Cup and A Squads will host 26 athletes across Freeski Slopestyle and Big Air, Freeski Halfpipe, Freestyle Snowboard Slopestyle and Big Air, Moguls, Ski Cross, and Snowboard Cross disciplines.
Among the athletes named in today’s selection are five who meet World Cup/A Squad criteria for the first time, and a further seven athletes selected pending coach and FIS point criteria reviews at the end of the pre-season programme.
The Freeski A squad features eight athletes, with Zoe Atkin, Connie Brogden, Tom Greenway, Tyler Harding, Chris McCormick, Kirsty Muir, James Pouch, Mia Rennie, and James Woods all returning from last season’s selections, and Caoimhe Heavey named for the first time having chosen to transfer to the British programme from the Canadian system. Sam Gaskin, meanwhile, is selected to the B Squad in Halfpipe.
The Freestyle Snowboard A Squad features Slopestyle World Champion Mia Brookes alongside Billy Cockrell, Maisie Hill (who continues her recovery from injury), Katie Ormerod and Emily Rothney. Charlie Lane and Ethan Smith are also selected on an initial pending basis. The B Squad features Lenny Fenning, Teiva Hamaini, and Euan Rogers, with Roahan Duncan, Amber Fennell, and Mia Langridge all selected on a pending basis, while Siddhartha Ullah will continue his progress in the Freestyle Halfpipe discipline having recorded top-10 positions in National Championships and Nor-Am Cup competitions last season.
In Snowboard Cross, two-time Crystal Globe holder Charlotte Bankes is joined by fellow Team World Champion Huw Nightingale, while in Ski Cross Ollie Davies is once again selected to the World Cup squad having secured his first World Cup podium earlier in the year. An eight-athlete Ski Cross Europa Cup Squad features Greg Baillie, Tommy Dade, Faith Davie, Scott Johns, Alannah Lawrie, Emma Peters, Zoe Winthrop, and Patrick Young.
The Moguls discipline sees 16-year-old Cali Carr join Will Feneley, Leonie Gerken Schofield, Makayla Gerken Schofield, Thomas Gerken Schofield, and Mateo Jeannesson in a World Cup squad that delivered a series of exceptional performances through the 2022/23 season.
Without a World Championships to focus on across the Freestyle programme, athletes across all disciplines will be looking to this season as an opportunity to hone and develop technical skills as the build-up to the Milan-Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games draws closer, while continuing to deliver exceptional results on the World Cup circuit.
Mateo Jeannesson, Moguls World Cup Squad Member, said:
“Last year I feel like I made some big strides in my development, and I’m excited about what’s coming next season. We’ve got a great team spirit and an amazing set-up, and I feel like that’s given us all the ingredients we need to show the rest of the world how much talent there is in British Moguls skiing. I’m really pleased to be a part of this team, and I’m looking forward to getting back to it.”
Pat Sharples, GB Snowsport Head Coach, said:
“After a hugely successful 2023 winter season for our athletes at World Championships, X Games, and on the World Cup circuit, it’s super exciting to see new, young, talented athletes join our teams across all Freestyle disciplines. With many of them targeting events like the World Junior Championships and Youth Olympic Games, and some starting out on their journey on the World Cup circuit, this promises to be another exciting season ahead.
“Selection to these squads doesn’t happen without an enormous amount of hard work and dedication, and it’s right that we acknowledge both the athletes’ own commitment and the incredible efforts of all the coaches across the British Freestyle system who play such an important role in developing such a talented pool of British snowsport athletes.”
Full Squad Selections
Freeski – A Squad
- Zoe Atkin*
- Connie Brogden†
- Tom Greenway
- Tyler Harding
- Caoimhe Heavey** †
- Chris McCormick
- Kirsty Muir
- James Pouch
- Mia Rennie†
- James Woods
Freeski – B Squad
- Sam Gaskin*
Snowboard Cross World Cup Squad
- Charlotte Bankes
- Huw Nightingale
Ski Cross World Cup Squad
- Ollie Davies
Ski Cross Europa Cup Squad
- Greg Baillie†
- Tommy Dade
- Faith Davie
- Scott Johns
- Alannah Lawrie
- Emma Peters
- Zoe Winthrop
- Patrick Young†
Moguls World Cup Squad
- Cali Carr***
- Will Feneley
- Leonie Gerken Schofield
- Makayla Gerken Schofield
- Thomas Gerken Schofield
- Mateo Jeannesson
Freestyle Snowboard A Squad
- Mia Brookes
- Billy Cockrell
- Maisie Hill
- Charlie Lane†
- Katie Ormerod
- Emily Rothney
- Ethan Smith†
Freestyle Snowboard B Squad
- Roahan Duncan
- Amber Fennell†
- Lenny Fenning
- Teiva Hamaini
- Mia Langridge
- Euan Rogers
- Siddhartha Ullah*
* Half Pipe Only
** Nation Transfer from Canadian system
*** Nation Transfer from American system
† Selection status pending FIS points or coach review
16-year-old World champion rounds off breakthrough season with international recognition
Mia Brookes, Britain’s youngest ever snowsport World Champion, rounded off her breakthrough season in senior competition with third place in the voting for the European Olympic Committees’ Piotr Nurowski Prize.
In a season packed full of higlights, including becoming Britain’s youngest snowsport World Cup podium athlete and the youngest ever Snowboard World Champion, Brookes’ recognition from Europe’s Olympic Committees showcases the extent of her impact on the global stage.
In taking third place behind Slovakian Ice Hockey starlet Nela Lopusanova and biathlete Oleksandra Merkushyna, Brookes becomes Britain’s highest placing winter athlete in the history of the Piotr Nurowski Prize, and only the third British athlete in history to make the winter sport shortlist after Madi Rowlands in 2016 and Kirsty Muir in 2021, who finished fourth and fifth place respectively.
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
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.
Mia Brookes makes history in Bakuriani, becoming first woman to land cab 1440
16-year-old Mia Brookes made history in Bakuriani, becoming Britain’s youngest ever Freestyle World Champion in Freestyle Snowboard Slopestyle. Coming into the second final run in the silver medal spot, Brookes delivered a stunning second run including the first ever cab 1440 in women’s snowboarding competition to score 91.38 and take a breathtaking World Championships gold.
Brookes, who qualified for Finals in second, got the better of New Zealander Zoe Sadowski-Synnott when she upped the technical ante with the first ever successful cab 1440 in women’s Freestyle Snowboard competition, leaving Sadowski-Synnott with too much to do in the final run of the contest.
The result makes Brookes the youngest ever Brit to take a Freestyle World Championships medal, and only the second British snowboarder to become a World Champion after defending Snowboard Cross World Champion and Bakuriani teammate, Charlotte Bankes.
There she is. @Mia_brookes. Your 2023 @fissnowboard Slopestyle WORLD CHAMPION 🤩🥇👏
She also lands the first-ever CAB 1440 double grab in a women’s event🥹💥#gbsnowsport pic.twitter.com/NcavN2ZP1E
— GB Snowsport (@GBSnowsport) February 27, 2023
Speaking afterwards, Mia said:
“I’m just really, really happy – live, I’ve never been so happy in my life. I feel like I’m going to cry!
“I actually can’t believe [the cab 1440]. When I did it, I wasn’t sure I’d managed it, but I thought about it and was like…yep, I’ve done a 14!”
Pat Sharples, GB Snowsport Head Coach, said:
“What Mia’s done out here today is just next level. We all know Mia’s got the talent, but this is her first season on the WC circuit and her first World championships so to land a run like that with all the pressure of a World Championships tells you everything you need to know about her. We’re all so stoked for Mia, her coaches Mikey and Ben, her parents Vicky and Nige, and the whole team around her.”
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