GB Snowsport

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.

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.

On a week of unprecedented success for British skiers and snowboarders, the nation’s athletes delivered 12 medals including three golds in a show of strength that confirms Britain’s standing as home to some of the world’s most exciting snowsport competitors.

At the Para Alpine World Championships Espot, Spain, Neil Simpson and Rob Poth banked gold, silver, and bronze medals in the Super-G, Slalom, and Giant Slalom respectively, crowning a 12-month period that secured gold and bronze medals in the Beijing 2022 Paralympic Winter Games for Simpson alongside his brother Andrew, as well as silver in the Super-Combined on Simpson’s World Championships debut in Lillehammer last year. Skiing together for the first time at major competition, after injury to Andrew in training over the winter, Simpson and Poth delivered a string of outstanding race performances amid fierce competition from the Italian pairing of Giacomo Bertagnolli and Andrea Ravelli, and Austria’s Joannes Aigner and Matteo Fleischmann.

In the Women’s VI Class, Menna Fitzpatrick and Katie Guest continued to show the form which has made Fitzpatrick Britain’s most decorated winter Paralympian with outstanding silver and bronze medal performances in the Giant Slalom and the Slalom, echoing the two medals the pair took at last year’s Lillehammer World Championships.

The Para Nordic World Championships in Ostersund, Sweden, meanwhile delivered a richly-deserved silver medal for Scott Meenagh in the 12.5km Biathlon. Meenagh, whose performances throughout the Championships were exceptional, finally took the podium that he has battled towards for so long, with a pristine shooting performance matched by a blistering ski pace. In the process, Meenagh delivered a first ever British Para Nordic World Championships medal, proving beyond doubt his strength as a skier and as a competitor at the highest levels of one of the most physically demanding sports in the world.

The 2023 X Games in Aspen, Colorado, saw three of the stars of British Freeski and Freestyle Snowboard invited to compete, with Zoe Atkin taking gold in a jaw-dropping display of half-pipe skiing, Kirsty Muir securing a brace of bronze medals in Slopestyle and Big Air that confirmed her status as one of the sport’s most promising athletes, and Mia Brookes a superb sixth place on her X Games debut. The team’s performances propelled Britain to seventh in the medal table, and saw some of Britain’s finest young athletes matched with the world’s best and most exciting freestyle talent.

Freestyle medals were also in the offing at the European Youth Olympic Festival where Team GB flagbearer, Charlie Lane, took gold in Freestyle Snowboard Slopestyle and silver in Big Air. At just 16 years of age, Lane’s performances continue a meteoric rise for the young Brit who first competed at international level in 2020.

In Moguls, Makayla Gerken-Schofield’s superb 2022/23 season finally brought the World Cup podium that her performances have so richly deserved, with third place in the Val St. Come Dual Moguls World Cup. Having taken eighth place in the previous day’s single Moguls contest, Gerken-Schofield’s third spot means she becomes the second Gerken-Schofield to take a Moguls World Cup podium following older brother Thomas Gerken-Schofield’s history-making second place in Krasnoyarsk in 2020, and leaves her having not finished outside the top-10 in any of the season’s seven World Cup competitions to date. In the Men’s competitions, Mateo Jeannesson took 31st in single Moguls and 40th in Dual Moguls, while Makayla’s fellow Beijing 2022 Olympian, Will Feneley, came 36th and 31st in single and Dual Moguls respectively.

With the Cross-Country World Championships on the horizon, Andrew Musgrave, Andrew Young, and James Clugnet were in action at the Les Rousses World Cup, with Young’s 15th place finish in the Sprint C the highlight of the team’s performances. Young also added a 47th and 50th place in the 10km F and 20km C, while Musgrave finished 17th, 52nd, and 35th in 10km F, Sprint C, and 20km C. Clugnet, meanwhile, was 61st in 10km F and 48th in Sprint C.

Alpine interests were focused on Schladming and Spindleruv Mlyn, with the Men’s Slalom and GS teams in action in Schladming, and Reece Bell returning for only the second World Cup race of her career in Spindleruv Mlyn, Dave Ryding delivering the week’s best performance with a 12th place finish in the Schladming Slalom WC.

The Alpine World Junior Championships concluded, with Calum Langmuir and Giselle Gorringe seeing the pick of the results. Langmuir’s 17th in the Men’s Super-G was a performance of real grit and promise, while Gorringe’s 23rd place in the Women’s Super-G left her unfortunate not to secure a top-20 spot, but still with much to reflect positively on. The Men’s Downhill, meanwhile, saw all three British entrants finish within the top-40, with Calum Langmuir in 32nd, Dominic Shackleton in 34th and Max Laughland in 37th. Further finishes were secured by Louis de Pourtales, Laughland, and Langmuir in the Men’s Giant Slalom.

The GB Snowsport Results Round-Up is brought to you by Snow+Rock.

GB Snowsport are delighted to confirm the British squads set to compete at the Para Alpine World Championships and Para Nordic World Championships this month.

In a break from the model set at last year’s Championships, where all Para snowsport disciplines competed in the same location, this year’s World Championships will see the Para Alpine team compete in Spain’s Espot resort, with the Para Nordic Championships taking place in Ostersund, Sweden.

The Para Alpine squad will see Beijing 2022 Paralympic Winter Games medallists Neil Simpson and Menna Fitzpatrick both compete in the VI class, with Simpson partnered with Rob Poth as his guide, and Fitzpatrick once again guided by Katie Guest. Gary Smith will travel as reserve guide.

The Espot Championships will mark Fitzpatrick’s fourth World Championships at the age of just 24, with a tally of eight World Championships medals in her possession, while Simpson will be competing at World Championships level for the second time, having taken silver in the Super Combined in Lillehammer last year.

In the Sitting class, Alex Slegg is set to compete in his second World Championships having made his debut at the delayed Lillehammer 2021 Championships last January.

The Para Nordic World Championships will see Scott Meenagh travel as the sole British competitor after injuries and retirements ruled out the remainder of the squad who travelled to the Paralympic Winter Games last year. Now into his seventh year of competing internationally in Para Nordic, Meenagh will be looking to build on an exceptional 2021/22 season which saw him claim his best result at a Paralympic Winter Games, with sixth place in the long-distance biathlon.

Paralympic Programme Manager, James Redpath, said:

“These World Championships are a great opportunity to show again how strong Britain’s Para Snowsport programmes are. We’re fortunate to have some incredible athletes representing the nation in both Championships, at a time where Para Snowsport around the world is getting stronger and stronger.

“It’s been a challenging build-up to the Championships, and we’re really disappointed on behalf of those athletes who miss out this year through injury, but we’re all confident in the teams we’re taking out and look forward to an exciting, competitive Championships.”

Para Alpine World Championships – Espot, Spain – 20-29 January 2023

Visually Impaired Classification

  • Menna Fitzpatrick
  • Katie Guest (Guide)
  • Rob Poth (Guide)
  • Neil Simpson
  • Gary Smith (Reserve Guide)

Sit Ski Classification

  • Alex Slegg

Para Nordic World Championships – Ostersund, Sweden – 20-29 January 2023

  • Scott Meenagh

Header Image: Menna Fitzpatrick competes in the Para Alpine Skiing Women’s Super Combined Super-G Vision Impaired at the Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympics on March 07, 2022 in Yanqing, China. (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)

Britain’s Para Snowboard and Para Alpine squads were back in the medals this weekend, while Mia Brookes made history

Despite confirmation that the Para Snowboard World Championships have been delayed until March, James Barnes-Miller and Nina Sparks kept up the team’s excellent season in Pyha, Finland. Barnes-Miller’s double gold in the weekend’s Snowboard Cross World Cup races capped a sensational weekend’s racing from the team, which also saw Sparks take silver and bronze across the two Europa Cup races, with Ollie Hill finishing fourth and eighth in his World Cup competitions.

The Para Alpine squad also took to the snow, with Menna Fitzpatrick and Katie Guest taking a hard-fought Slalom silver in Veysonnaz, just 0.73s behind the race winner, Austria’s Veronika Aigner, with the Para Alpine World Championships now confirmed to take place as scheduled from 21-29 January in Espot, Spain.

The Freestyle Snowboard Big Air World Cup season drew to a close at the weekend, with Mia Brookes making history as she became the first athlete to stomp a flat-spin cab 1260 in a women’s World Cup competition on her way to a breath taking fifth place in Kreischberg. The result confirms a staggering first season on the World Cup circuit for 15-year-old Brookes, who was the youngest athlete to make the Finals field by a distance, and marks her out as perhaps the most exciting young talent in women’s Freestyle Snowboard.

Maisie Hill’s own excellent form continued, meanwhile, as she finished in tenth spot, just outside of Finals qualification, and adding to her own record of three top-10 places in four World Cup competitions to date.

At Wengen Alpine Slalom World Cup, Dave Ryding came in just outside of the top-20 with a 21st place finish, the result meaning Ryding has hit the top-30 in all five Slalom World Cup races this season in a show of his consistency, despite suffering illness coming into the weekend’s races. Laurie Taylor finished outside of qualification for the second run, while Billy Major notched a DNF in the first run.

Earlier in the week, meanwhile, Victoria Palla became the latest British Alpine skier to make her World Cup debut, in the Flachau Slalom World Cup lodging a DNF, but winning valuable experience at the highest levels of the sport. Roy-Alexander Steudle took two top-40 finishes in the Sella Nevea Downhill EC, within Owen Vinter also finishing both races in 66th and 55th position respectively.

The GB Snowsport Results Round-Up is brought to you by Snow+Rock

Fourteen athletes and guides confirmed for selection ahead of 2022/23 season

GB Snowsport are delighted to announce the Para Alpine and Para Snowboard squads who will represent the nation through the 2022/23 season.

In total, fourteen athletes and guides have been selected ahead of the start of the season.

In Para Alpine, Britain’s most decorated Winter Paralympian, Menna Fitzpatrick is selected alongside Beijing 2022 Gold Medallist, Neil Simpson and new squad member, Michael Kear, in the VI classification, while Beijing Paralympians Shona Brownlee and Alex Slegg will compete in the sitting classification following a glut of highly encouraging performances last season.

Current VI Guides Andrew Simpson, Katie Guest, Gary Smith and Adam Hall will continue in their roles supporting the VI Athletes and will be joined, on an initial trial basis, by Louise Harrison who has been guiding Michael Kear for the previous five seasons.

The Para Alpine team will be looking to build on an astonishing 2021/22 season which saw them take five Paralympic medals, including a memorable Gold in the Super-G for Neil and Andrew Simpson and seven World Championships medals, crowned by Menna Fitzpatrick and Katie Guest’s Gold in the Slalom.

Millie Knight, whose performances alongside Guide Brett Wild in Lillehammer and Beijing yielded three medals, has elected to take a year out from skiing after completing three highly successful Paralympic Games cycles, while Wild confirmed his retirement from the sport following the conclusion of the Beijing Paralympic Winter Games.

In Para Snowboard, Britain’s first ever Paralympic Snowboard medallist, Ollie Hill, is named alongside multiple World Championship medal winner James Barnes-Miller. Joining them will be two new athletes who have moved up from the Development squad, Cycling Paralympic gold medallist Jon-Allan Butterworth will compete alongside Barnes-Miller in the SB-UL classification and Nina Sparks becomes Britain’s first female competitor since 2017 and will compete in the SB-LL2 classification.

Bronze medallist Ollie Hill celebrates after competing in the Men’s Banked Slalom Snowboard SB-LL2 during day seven of the Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympics. (Photo by Lintao Zhang/Getty Images. ParalympicsGB)

2017 and 2019 World Championships silver medallist Owen Pick has joined Millie Knight in choosing to take a year out from the programme, while Andy MacLeod exits the programme having competed at the Beijing Paralympic Winter Games earlier this year.

Jayne Kavanagh, GB Snowsport Head of Paralympic Programmes, said:

“The strength of the Para Alpine and Para Snowboard squads this year is testament to the incredible successes that British Para Snowsport has enjoyed over recent years. Even as the standard of competition across the world increases every year, British athletes continue to stand at the forefront of Para Snowsport and are deservedly recognised for the world class athletes that they are.

“This is an incredibly exciting year for Para Snowsport as the disciplines fall under the oversight of FIS for the first time, and I’m certain that British athletes will continue to excel as the sport enters a new phase of its development.

“For those athletes exiting the programme this year temporarily or permanently, it’s important to place on record our thanks and congratulations for the success they’ve had and the impact they’ve made on British skiing and snowboarding. We wish them well, and will always consider them a vital part of the GB Snowsport family.”

Ollie Hill, Beijing Paralympic Games and Lillehammer World Championships bronze medallist, said:

“Last year was unbelievable, and to come home at the end of the season with medals from the World Championships and the Paralympics was an absolute dream.

“We have without a doubt some of the best coaches and support staff, without them we would be nowhere. We have been working hard on and off snow through summer, ready to show the world what’s up again this year. We will bring it to the very best!”

There is no Para Nordic squad named at present while GB Snowsport appeals against UK Sport’s decision not to fund the Para Nordic programme through the Milan-Cortina Paralympic cycle. While we await the outcome of that appeal, GB Snowsport are continuing to explore every avenue to support Britain’s Para Nordic athletes to train and compete throughout this season.

Para Alpine

  • Shona Brownlee
  • Menna Fitzpatrick
  • Katie Guest (Guide)
  • Adam Hall (Guide)
  • Louise Harrison (Guide)
  • Michael Kear
  • Andrew Simpson (Guide)
  • Neil Simpson
  • Alex Slegg
  • Gary Smith (Guide)

Para Snowboard

  • James Barnes-Miller
  • Jon-Allan Butterworth
  • Ollie Hill
  • Nina Sparks

Header Image: Menna Fitzpatrick reacts in the Para Alpine Skiing Women’s Super-G Vision Impaired during day two of the Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympics (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images. Paralympics GB)

2022 Paralympic Winter Games pair form part of first cohort for UK Sport backed social impact programme

Para Snowboarder and Beijing Paralympic Winter Games bronze medallist Ollie Hill, and Para Alpine Skier and World Para Snow Sports Championships medalist Shona Brownlee are among the first cohort of athletes selected for Powered by Purpose, a new social impact initiative launched by UK Sport and The True Athlete Project.

Powered by Purpose is a new initiative designed to support UK Sport funded athletes who have an interest in making a difference in their communities and to society. The programme will see participants take part in a series of tailored workshops which will lead them to explore the world of sport and the role of athletes on social change.

Discussing the project, Ollie Hill said: “I’m honoured to join the Powered by Purpose programme and can’t wait to get started. I’ve always said that a big motivation for me has been about using snowboarding to create inspiration for others, and I’m really grateful to UK Sport and True Athlete Project for giving me the chance to learn how to make more of a difference through my sport.”

Shona Brownlee said: “With everything that’s happened in people’s lives over the last few years, I’m more conscious than ever before the responsibility we have as athletes to give back and support others in everything we do. I really want to use my career in sport to help inspire people right around the country in whatever way I can, and I feel that Powered by Purpose will be an amazing way to learn about the opportunities I have as an athlete to do just that.”

IN RESPONSE TO THE DECISIONS OF THE IPC, FIS, AND IBU TO TRANSFER INTERNATIONAL GOVERNANCE OF THE PARA SNOWSPORT DISCIPLINES, GB SNOWSPORT HAVE COMMENDED THE STRATEGIC THINKING OF THE THREE AGENCIES

GB Snowsport welcomes the decision by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) and the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) to transfer governance of Para Alpine Skiing, Para Cross-Country Skiing and Para Snowboard to FIS, and the IPC and International Biathlon Union’s (IBU) confirmation that Para Biathlon’s governance will be transferred to the IBU.

Over recent years, we have seen first-hand the benefits of integrating Olympic and Paralympic snowsport disciplines under the auspices of a single Governing Body system. Not only has that ‘One Team’ ethos strengthened the support available to Para Snowsport teams and athletes, but it has also provided reciprocal benefits to Olympic discipline squads through innovative training, conditioning and competition practices.

We strongly support the decisions made by the IPC, FIS, and IBU and look forward to seeing the growth of all Para snowsport disciplines as the Milan-Cortina Paralympic cycle begins into the new season.

Jayne Kavanagh, GB Snowsport Head of Paralympic Programmes, said:

“This is a really exciting development for the global Para Snowsport community, and I join colleagues around the world in commending the decision of the IPC, FIS, and IBU.

“The past few years have seen so many great examples within GB Snowsport of the benefits of Paralympic and Olympic discipline squads training, developing, and supporting one another as a collaborative group, and this step will hopefully see more opportunities for the sport to join forces, and to grow and thrive together.

“We also take this opportunity to pay tribute to the IPC, whose efforts have been so important in growing the Para Snowsport disciplines to their existing world-renowned status.”

Header Image: Neil Simpson competes during the Men’s Giant Slalom Vision Impaired Run 2 on day six of the Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympics at Yanqing National Alpine Skiing Centre. Photo Credit: Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images.

As thoughts turn towards pre-season, we look back at an historic 2021/22 season for GB Snowsport athletes

Making History

As a season of record-breaking highs and heart-breaking disappointments draws to a close, the British snowsport scene can look back on a year where the history books were rewritten, even as we felt the joy and the despair of an Olympic and Paralympic Games like no other.

In Beijing, British athletes battled covid restrictions, challenging snow conditions, crashes, injuries, and disruption, and returned home with pride, disappointment, new successes, agonising defeats and, from the Paralympic squad, six medals from the Alpine and Snowboard events. But those are results that only tell a fraction of the story.

Bronze medallist Ollie Hill of Team Great Britain celebrates after competing in the Men’s Banked Slalom Snowboard SB-LL2 during day seven of the Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympics. (Photo by Lintao Zhang/Getty Images)

26 World Cup and World Championship podiums

On the World Cup and World Championships stages, British athletes took 26 podiums with Charlotte Bankes’ Crystal Globe winning Snowboard Cross season and Dave Ryding’s history-making Slalom victory in Kitzbuehel leading the way. Europa Cup contests added another 25, including four for the remarkable Mia Brookes, each a victory, and all before she has turned 16 years of age. FIS level races saw British athletes notch another 12 podiums, including seven victories, in Alpine, Freeski, Snowboard and Ski Cross. World Championships and World Junior Championships, meanwhile, accounted for an additional nine. On podium places alone, British skiers and snowboarders at every level, are showing themselves among the world’s best athletes.

And off the slopes, yet more progress has been made. New partners in Redrow, Fusalp, and Williams Advanced Engineering have helped to grow the sport at home and overseas. More work is underway to champion equality and diversity at every level. Efforts to bring our sport closer to people at home have taken root.

Charlotte Bankes tops the podium at Reiteralm Snowboard Cross World Cup, March 2022 Photo: GEPA pictures/ Harald Steiner

Highs and lows in Beijing

We cannot, though, forget the frustration felt in Beijing. For the Olympic squad to return without a medal was a disappointment given the good form of so many athletes going into the Games, but even among the sense of missed opportunities there were green shoots to be found. Kirsty Muir’s Olympic debut hinted at the promise her talent holds, Makayla Gerken-Schofield’s best-ever Moguls result for a British Olympic skier, and Zoe Atkin’s top-10 in the Halfpipe all showed a core of young talent with their best years ahead of them.

Even as the emotions of defeat were present, so the grit and determination among the team came to the fore, whether in Leonie Gerken-Schofield’s ability to get back up again and put down a run after a fall in the Moguls, Charlotte Bankes’ breath-taking display of overtaking in the Snowboard Cross Team event after her shock elimination in the Women’s competition, or Gus Kenworthy’s determination to finish his Olympic career with a clean run after a bone-shuddering fall in the Halfpipe Finals.

Where Olympic results didn’t deliver a medal, the Paralympic squad was a regular fixture on the podium throughout the Games. Its six medals – one gold, one silver, and four bronze – came through a mix of old hands (Millie Knight and Menna Fitzpatrick both adding to their remarkable Paralympic records) and new blood (medals on debut for Neil Simpson and, for Ollie Hill a first ever British Paralympic snowboarding medal), and built on a World Championships that saw Britain return home with seven medals from Lillehammer.

Neil Simpson during the Men’s Giant Slalom Vision Impaired Run 1 on day six of the Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympic Games. (Photo by Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images)

A new cycle begins

As one four-year cycle draws to a close another begins, and eyes are already beginning to turn to Milan-Cortina, the venue for the 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. As plans for that cycle begin to take shape both the current and the next generation of British stars are making an ever-stronger mark.

As a country and as a Governing Body, we are still at the beginning of our journey to become one of the world’s leading snowsport nations. Results aside, the performance standard for British snowsport athletes has increased dramatically in the four years since the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, with the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic squads the strongest a British team has ever sent to a Winter Games. These are the levels that athletes will now have to meet and exceed as Milan-Cortina approaches, and the potential that a new generation of skiers and snowboarders is showing gives us reason for optimism.

In Snowboard Cross, the first Crystal Globe of Charlotte Bankes’ career shows the depth and consistency of her talent, with Huw Nightingale also enjoying a breakthrough season, while Ski Cross prospects are encouraging with Ollie Davies and Max Vaughton both making an impact this year.

In Alpine, Charlie Guest continues to go from strength-to-strength, with repeated forays into World Cup top-20 spots, while Reece Bell’s long-awaited World Cup debut has arrived, and Charlie Raposo has delivered the best British men’s performances in Giant Slalom for decades.

The Para Nordic squad has grown in stature with a series of career-best performances over the season hinting at the potential to come, while in the Para Snowboard ranks new talent continues to break through with Ollie Hill, Nina Sparks, and Jon-Allan Butterworth all bolstering British hopes at the highest levels.

Mateo Jeannesson’s development in Moguls has catapulted him to the top of the podium.

Mia Brookes looks ready to conquer the world after a season which saw her take eight wins and one runner up spot from nine FIS, Europa Cup and Junior World Championship event entries.

The country’s Freeski prospects look encouraging, with Kirsty Muir, Zoe and Izzy Atkin, Connie Brogden, and Tyler Harding all showing promise this year.

Kirsty Muir, at Big Air qualification at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games. Photo by Sam Mellish / Team GB.

Britain’s Kitzbuehel King

The future, then, looks in good hands. But in the present, the 2021/22 season leaves behind a moment that will never be forgotten in British snowsport history. As the man himself said, “I remember in the past comments like ‘Ah, I’ve been beaten by a Brit’, or calling us an ‘exotic’ nation. Those comments have gone pretty quiet now. I’ve always said to the younger generation that it’s possible; I don’t have to say that anymore. I can just put the video on and say: ‘watch that’.”

Dave Ryding. Kitzbuehel Slalom World Cup winner 2022.

A victory to showcase a great sportsman’s talent, and to mark Britain’s place on the global snowsport map.

Dave Ryding celebrates victory at Kitzbuehel Slalom World Cup, January 2022. Photo: GEPA pictures/ Wolfgang Grebien

Header image: Charlie Guest at Schladming World Cup, January 2022. Photo: GEPA pictures/ David Geieregger

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