The five-day festival of Winter Sport will see six British youth skiers and snowboarders compete with the world’s best young prospects
For the five British skiers and one British snowboarder selected by the British Olympic Association to represent GB at the 2022 European Youth Olympic Festival in Vuokatti, Finland, competition gets underway today with the first events of Europe’s leading multi-sport festival for athletes aged 14-18.
With the team now on site and training underway, the athletes will be looking to follow in the footsteps of established skiers like Owen Vinter, a participant at the Bosnia edition in 2019, and now a regular competitor at FIS and Junior World Championship levels, with seven Europa Cup appearances under his belt.
In the Alpine events, Alexa Elliff, Isla Ward, Aidan Urquhart, and Ted Slade will all get underway when tomorrow’s Alpine calendar kicks off with the Slalom races, while Snowboarder Koby Cook‘s programme begins later the same day.
In Nordic Combined, Mani Cooper will also be looking to make an impact on Tuesday in the Girls’ competitions, which get underway at 15:15 local time.
For more information on the European Youth Olympic Festival, including broadcast links, visit www.eyof2022.fi/schedule
Header Image: Koby Cook, Photo: Ben Kinnear
As the 2021/22 season heads towards its close, British athletes were grabbing sensational results across Europe
Charlotte Bankes topped the bill, picking straight back up from her pre-Olympics form with yet another World Cup victory, sealing the Crystal Globe in the process. Her victory in Reiteralm, her fourth this season, means Bankes has stood on the podium at all but one of her World Cup races since the start of the season, and left her in an unassailable position at the top of the competition standings with one competition to go.
In the Men’s races, Huw Nightingale made it safely through to the Finals, coming 24th as his first season on the World Cup tour draws towards its end.
Mia Brookes, the 15-year-old Freestyle Snowboard sensation, also continued her breathtaking season with a stunning Big Air performance in Leysin, Switzerland, which saw her named Junior World Champion, and a hard-fought second place in the Slopestyle. The Big Air title was secured with a B7 and cab 9 in windy conditions and the two highest-scoring jumps in the competition, leaving Brookes comfortably in first place ahead of Chihiro Edamatsu of Japan in second.
Her second place in the Slopestyle, behind Japan’s Yura Murase, included a well-executed and technical rail line, with a great jump line that inlcuded a cab 10, saw only a point separating Brookes from Murase in the final standings. Remarkably, the Slopestyle silver marks the first time this season that Brookes has finished off the top spot in the eight competitions she has entered this season. Amber Fennell was also in action, the 15-year-old coming 25th in Slopestyle and 22nd in Big Air, for a pair of encouraging performances.
In Alpine, Charlie Raposo secured Britain’s first Men’s Giant Slalom World Cup points in 54 years at Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, on Saturday with a 27th place finish, before backing it up with an even better performance in the second of the weekend’s dual World Cup races to take 16th spot.
A blisteringly fast, technically excellent second leg in Sunday’s race saw Raposo sat in the race leader’s chair at one point, and marks the highlight of his World Cup career to date. The two races marked the second and third times that Raposo has secured World Cup points in his career, the first having come when he opened his account in Lech / Zuers in November.
Charlie Guest, appearing in her first World Cup since her Olympic Winter Games campaign, also took 27th spot in the Slalom World Cup in Are, Sweden. Guest’s result means she has only twice failed to take home World Cup points this season, having delivered a number of career-best finishes over the winter.
In Cross-Country, Andrew Musgrave took his third World Cup top-10 of the season in Falun, with a 10th place finish in the 15km Free. In a tightly-contested race, Musgrave’s time of 32:48.6 saw him share 10th spot with Finland’s Iivo Niskanen, with the pair less than 3s back from Canadian Olivier Leveille in ninth. James Clugnet took 59th, having secured 25th place in the Sprint Classic the day before. Andrew Young, meanwhile, finished further back in the pack in the 15km Free, having taken 36th spot in the Sprint Classic. For Clugnet, the Sprint marked his first occasion qualifying for Finals in a Sprint Classic race.
Big result for this man today, as @musgraveandrew banked a World Cup top🔟 in the 15km in Falun.
Making. Every. Drop. Of. Effort. Count.💪🏼🇬🇧 pic.twitter.com/fOZ7CYEy4A
— GB Snowsport (@GBSnowsport) March 12, 2022
In Telemark, Jasmin Taylor took an incredible five podiums, including two race victories, in five races in Les Houches and Murren. Les Houches saw two Sprint World Cups that gave Taylor first and second spots, before taking the runners up spot in both Classic and Sprint in Murren, rounding the weekend off with victory in the Parallel Sprint.
There were also encouraging performances from Sissi Compton (11th and 17th in Les Houches Sprint World Cup,, 11th, 12th, and 13th in the Junior World Championships in Murren), Tim Gough (eighth, fifth, and 17th in the Junior World Championships, 12th in Les Houches, 18th in Murren Parallel Sprint World Cup), Ben Emsley (ninth in Murren Sprint World Cup, 16th in Parallel Sprint), Colin Dixon (18th and 15th in Les Houches, 12th, 11th, and 11th in Murren), and Magnus McIntosh (13th and 15th in Les Houchesm 10th in Murren Parallel Sprint World Cup, and 13th, 12th and ninth spots in the Junior World Championships) rounding out an excellent week for the Telemark squad.
The weekly GB Snowsport results summary is presented in association with Snow+Rock
Header Image: Charlotte Bankes celebrates victory at the Reiteralm World Cup, Austria. Photo: GEPA pictures/ Harald Steiner
GB Snowsport are delighted to confirm the names of five British athletes selected to compete at the OPA Games this month
Running from 12-13 March, the OPA Cross Country races will see five British skiers line up to represent the country in the Alpen Cup level event.
All named athletes have been selected in line with the GB Snowsport Selection Policies.
GB Squad for OPA Games 2022, Sappada, Italy
- Jake Blane
- Logan Duncan
- Jakob Ipsen
- Rasmus Ipsen
- Tristan Marshall
Five skiers and one snowboarder will travel to Vuokatti, Finland, as part of British squad
Six ski and snowboard athletes have been announced as members of the British squad for the European Youth Olympic Festival 2022 in Vuokatti, Finland, by the British Olympic Association.
The competition, which runs from 20-25 March 2022, is Europe’s leading multi-sport event for athletes aged 14-18 and delivered under the patronage of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). First held for winter sports in 1993 in Italy, the 2022 event will mark the 15th Winter EYOF and the second time it has been hosted in Vuokatti, after the fifth EYOF in 2001.
Alpine
- Alexa Elliff
- Isla Ward
- Aidan Urquhart
- Ted Slade
Snowboard
- Koby Cook
Nordic Combined
- Mani Cooper
Header Image: Team GB’s Mani Cooper during Nordic Combined Ski Jump training at the Lausanne 2020 Youth Olympic Games on the 17h January 2020 at the Les Tuffes Nordic Centre in Switzerland. Photo by Sam Mellish
Dave Ryding’s sensational season continued in Germany, Andrew Young and James Clugnet were back in World Cup action, while Mia Brookes continued her perfect season, and the Moguls squad grabbed podiums and top-10s in Austria
The Alpine World Cup season got back into full swing following the Beijing Olympic Winter Games, with a stunning fifth career World Cup podium for Dave Ryding in the second of the weekend’s double-header in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. Having taken a 20th place finish in the first of the weekend’s WC races on Saturday, Ryding stormed back with a superb second run in Sunday’s race to move from 19th spot at the turn to take second place and the fifth World Cup podium of his career.
The result, which saw him finish just 0.35s behind Norway’s Henrik Kristoffersen, puts Ryding fourth in the Slalom World Cup standings, and marks the first time he’s stood on a World Cup podium more than once in a season. Billy Major and Laurie Taylor also turned out in both races, Major coming 43rd in the weekend’s first race before a DNF in Sunday’s race, and Taylor taking 54th on Sunday following a DNF on Saturday.
Andrew Young and James Clugnet were also back in World Cup action in Lahti, Finland, with Young taking a top-10 in the Sprint Free, coming in eighth spot. Clugnet, who qualified in fourth, had to settle for 26th in the Final, and followed it up with a 52nd place finish in the 15km Classic, with Young finishing 26th. The results confirmed a season-best performance for Young in the Sprint Free, while for Clugnet the weekend’s action marked a best-ever Prologue as well as his highest ever Classic distance finish.
In Freestyle Snowboard, Mia Brookes’ season card currently reads: entered six, won six after another pair of first-place Europa Cup finishes in Goetschen, Germany in Big Air and Slopestyle. Both competitions saw Brookes up against a number of athletes who competed for their countries in Beijing at the Olympic Winter Games, with her ability to mix it with the world’s best becoming increasingly apparent.
Meanwhile, the Moguls squad grabbed a host of top-10 finishes at the Krispl Europa Cup, topped by silver medals for Leonie Gerken Schofield and Will Feneley. In the men’s competitions, Feneley took silver with Tom Gerken Schofield securing a top-10 finish with tenth spot, and a 14th place for Mateo Jeannesson on the first day, before Feneley doubled up on podium finishes, coming third on the Sunday, with Jeannesson taking sixth and Thomas Gerken Schofield another tenth. In the women’s section, Leonie Gerken Schofield’s Saturday silver was followed by a fourth-place finish on the Sunday, capping an outstanding weekend of skiing for the British squad.
The weekly GB Snowsport results summary is presented in association with Snow+Rock
Header Image: Dave Ryding celebrates at Garmisch-Partenkirchen Slalom World Cup, 27 February 2022. Photo: GEPA pictures/ Thomas Bachun
Gus Kenworthy brought down the curtain on a glittering Olympic career, while Musgrave takes 12th in weather-affected XC contest
Amid challenging weather conditions, Gus Kenworthy‘s glittering career drew to a close with a top-8 finish in the Men’s Freeski Halfpipe. After a scratch run on his first attempt and a huge smash on his second, there were questions over whether Kenworthy would be able to make it out for a third run. Ultimately he did, putting down a 71.25 to finish in eighth position, offering a reminder of his enduring class and impact in Freeski.
Having competed at the previous two Olympic Winter Games for the USA, Kenworthy switched representation to Team GB for his final Games appearance and helped ensure another Freestyle top-10 finish for British skiers at the Beijing Games, to go alongside those for Kirsty Muir (twice), Katie Summerhayes, Zoe Atkin, and Makayla Gerken Schofield.
Speaking after the Finals, Kenworthy said:
“Today was a pretty big struggle, we showed up and it was the windiest it has been since we’ve been here in Beijing, very, very cold.
“Just tough conditions to compete in. I think everybody had to end up modifying their run and adapting what they were doing and I did too.
“I still felt pretty good and felt that I could potentially do well and end up on the podium but I knew it was going to take a well executed run which is hard when it’s like this.
“Second run I had a pretty bad slam. I was feeling sore and knew that my third run was going to be my last contest run ever and that was my motivation.
“I dug deep and was able to put it down but it was pretty loose and windy, it wasn’t the run I wanted to do but I was grateful to make it down in one piece and end on my feet.
“I was still planning on doing a switch double on the second to last hit, I felt the wind as I was coming into it. That happened in my first run and I fell on that trick and I didn’t want to fall on the same trick on my last go.
“I felt the wind and did a switch 720, then had a bit of a weird landing at the bottom. It’s all good, it wasn’t quite what I hoped for but I’m still pretty proud of it.
“I’ve had a great time, I feel very lucky to be back here for a third Games and doing it for Team GB has been awesome. I just love all the people at the programme and the other athletes.
“The Olympics has changed my life, it has provided so much, all the opportunities I’ve had through skiing and my silver medal [for USA at Sochi 2014] is crazy to me and I feel very lucky.
“This last performance was for my mum and doing it for GB.
“I hope I made her proud, I’m sure I did. It wasn’t a medal or quite what I set out for but it all comes down to the day and it was a tough day today.”
Musgrave fights hard to secure top-15 spot
Poor weather conditions forced a last-minute shortening of the Men’s 50km Mass Start Free course to a 28.4km circuit, a decision which frustrated Andrew Musgrave, whose preparations had geared towards the longer distance. Despite the late change, Musgrave got off to a super start which saw him sitting in second at around the quarter race mark and held in the leading pack up until just after the halfway mark, but fell back in the final quarter of the race to finish a respectable 12th position.
Speaking afterwards, Musgrave reflected:
“It was a bit of a tough one. I was feeling a lot better today than in the two previous ones I’ve done.
“It was a little bit strange that the 50km suddenly got changed to a shorter race. But I couldn’t really do anything about that and just had to go out and make the best of it.
“I was feeling pretty good but on the second lap France’s Maurice Manificat increased the pace a wee bit and I felt it was just a little bit too fast.
“Out on the third lap, I was a little bit in the red and just couldn’t keep pace with the front guys. It was a fight to not lose too much time and keep my position.
“It ended up being a lot better day than the previous two races but it wasn’t quite what I dreamed of either.
“I was a little bit annoyed [at the change of distance]. 50km is meant to be the ultimate endurance race and I felt like it wasn’t quite the same.
“I like 30km as well, I know I’m strong on both of them. It’s a similar sort of race, preparation and warm-ups are all the same. I was annoyed but at the same time it didn’t affect my preparation.”
Header Image: Gus Kenworthy during Freeski Halfpipe Finals training at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games on the 19th February 2022 at Genting Snow Park in Zhangjakou, China. Photo by Sam Mellish / Team GB.
The final day of competition for Britain’s skiers and snowboarders in Beijing sees Gus Kenworthy and Andrew Musgrave in action
Men’s Freeski Halfpipe
A Finalist on his final tilt at the Olympic Winter Games, Gus Kenworthy will be seeking his second Olympic medal after his silver from the Sochi Games in 2014. Having qualified for the FInal in 12th spot, Kenworthy will have three shots at the Halfpipe as he looks to sign off on a storied career which has seen him bank no fewer than six Halfpipe World Cup podiums including three top spots.
The first competitors drop in at 1:30am.
Watch on: BBC and Eurosport
Men’s Cross-Country 50km Mass Start Free
Andrew Musgrave will be looking to save his best until last from a challenging Games when the Men’s Cross-Country 50km Mass Start Free gets underway at 6:00am. Having taken 53rd spot in Sochi and 34th place in PyeongChang, Musgrave will be looking for improved performances at a Games where race conditions have proved a significant challenge.
Watch on: Eurosport and across the BBC
Header Image: Gus Kenworthy during Freeski Halfpipe qualification training at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games on the 17th February 2022 at Genting Snow Park in Zhangjakou, China. Photo by Sam Mellish / Team GB.
day 13 saw Alpine action for Dave Ryding and Billy Major, while Andrew Young and James Clugnet bowed out of the Cross Country Men’s Team Sprint Classic
Ryding takes 13th while Major makes debut
The highly-anticipated Men’s Slalom event drew to a close with Dave Ryding in 13th position after a day of highly challenging, technical skiing. Joining Ryding in the starting gate for Team GB was Billy Major, making his Olympic debut at 25.
Skiing in Bib 32, Major was lightning fast out of the gate but saw a straddle bring his charge to a close in the first run, one of 36 skiers to post a DNF in the first run alone.
Ryding, meanwhile, saw a mistake in the first run leave him in 16th position at the turn and requiring a sensational second run to put him in podium contention.
Briefly it appeared he may have pulled off something special as his second run time of 50.44 put Ryding at the top of the standings, but the gap to the first run’s frontrunners proved too much and saw him finish in 13th position.
After the race, Dave said:
“[I’d give myself a] C plus! I started great in the first run and lost the rhythm. My second run I knew that I wasn’t quite flowing enough.
“Even though I took the lead I knew it wasn’t enough. You can feel it when you’re skiing. It felt more like a struggle than a flow today.
“I gave it what I had which I always do, so I can’t be too disappointed. It was just what it was today. You try and learn and I’ll try again next race.
“I still feel like I could ski KitzbĂĽhel now like I did three weeks ago.
“It’s not like anything’s wrong. It’s just on the day, I was the wrong side of everyone rather than the right side of everyone. I wouldn’t change anything, no.
“We always do what we can. It’s easy to look back and pick on things. Day by day, we’ve done everything we can out here. It’s just what it was today.
“[on the impacts of Brexit on British skiing] It is what it is. It makes things even harder for us. We do what we can. We have a good team and a good federation now.
“I’m confident they’ll take care of everything and I won’t have to worry about that. That’s the good thing now.
“We’ve got the National Lottery on board now. We’ll see how happy they are after my performance today.
“I’ve got to thank them, thank the federation because now I can just worry about the performance.”
Billy Major also spoke after the race:
“I didn’t feel like I got off to the best start. I felt a little bit up against it and a little bit off with timing.
“Maybe I just had a bit of a feeling of needing to let it go coming onto this final section. I pushed it a bit too much and let the feet get away from me. I couldn’t make the next gate.
“It’s frustrating. Certain people see it as you have to finish to be in the race and to make it down.
“At the end of the day you need to finish but I was trying to push out there and show my best skiing. Unfortunately today it wasn’t in the finish.”
GB bow out at semi-final stage in Men’s XC Team Sprint Classic
Andrew Young and James Clugnet’s bid for Cross-Country glory came to an end in the semi-finals of the Men’s Team Sprint Classic. Going out in semi-final one, the pair finished in 10th position with an overall time of 21:15.27, 57.99 seconds behind the leading Norwegian pair. With only the top four qualifying from each semi-final, the result brings to an end British interest in the XC team events at the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games.
Header Image: Dave Ryding in the Olympic Winter Games 2022 Men’s Slalom. Photo: GEPA pictures/ Daniel Goetzhaber
It’s time for the Men’s Slalom, as Britain’s Flag Bearer steps into the fray, while the Cross-Country squad return for the Team Sprint Classic
Alpine – Men’s Slalom
Dave Ryding and Billy Major are set for their Beijing bow as the Men’s Slalom takes place overnight. On a slope which has seen pre-competition favourites fail to get to grips with the conditions in earlier races, Ryding and Major will face their first run at 2:15am UK time, with the second run following at 5:45am for those who qualify.
For Ryding, the race will mark his fourth Olympic Winter Games appearance having finished 27th, 17th and 9th in the Slalom in Vancouver, Sochi and PyeongChang respectively. Major, meanwhile, will be making his Olympic debut with the 25-year-old notched the first World Cup points of his career in the last race before the Games, where he finished 18th in Schladming.
Watch on: Eurosport and across the BBC
Cross-Country – Team Sprint Classic
Despite a difficult campaign so far, Andrew Young and James Clugnet are set to return to the Cross Country Skiing Centre at Zhangjiakou for the Men’s Team Sprint Classic tomorrow morning.
Semi-Finals get underway at 8:15am with the Final following at 9:15am.
Watch on: Eurosport and the BBC