6 March 2024 marks the start of the one year countdown to the Milan-Cortina Paralympic Winter Games
One year from now, British Paralympic athletes will be readying themselves for the opening of the Milan-Cortina Paralympic Winter Games, the first Winter Paralympics on European soil since Sochi 2014.
Standing behind them will be a proud track record of British snowsport success in the world’s biggest Paralympic competition, including six medals from the last Paralympic Winter Games in Beijing in 2022.
Of Britain’s Beijing medallists, Neil Simpson (Gold, Men’s Super-G VI; Bronze, Men’s Super Combined VI), Menna Fitzpatrick (Silver, Women’s Super-G VI; Bronze, Women’s Super Combined VI) and Ollie Hill (Bronze, Men’s Snowboard Banked Slalom LL2) will all be aiming to make a return to the Paralympic stage having built an impressive body of results in the years since in the World Cup and World Championships arenas, while Millie Knight (Bronze, Women’s Downhill VI) announced her retirement shortly after the Beijing Games.
Over the coming year, we are committed to continuing our work with our Para Alpine, Para Nordic, and Para Snowboard athletes and ensuring we prepare the strongest possible team ready for competition in Milan-Cortina in 2026.
Britain added three more World Cup podiums on another impressive week of action
Bankes and Nightingale take Turkish podiums
An impressive weekend of Snowboard Cross performances yielded podiums in the Women’s and Team events, with Charlotte Bankes continuing her run of dominant form.
In the individual competitions, Bankes was once again flawless as she executed a well-developed race strategy to secure Gold in the women’s competition, taking a fourth consecutive World Cup win in the process. Having finished fourth in the season’s opening competition, Bankes hasn’t missed a beat since and currently sits atop the overall standings with the World Cup season now more than halfway to completion.
The following day’s Team event saw Bankes and Huw Nightingale combine for a superb Silver medal winning performance behind a highly-rated Australian team. The result continues a rich vein of form for Bankes and Nightingale in the team event, with sights firmly set on the next Team race in Montafon before the pair set out to defend their Team World Championships title in St Moritz.
Barnes-Miller secures first World Cup podium of season in Steamboat
James Barnes-Miller grabbed his first Para Snowboard World Cup podium of the 2024-25 season with a third-place finish in the Snowboard Cross event in Steamboat, Colorado.
Having finished fifth in the week’s opening races, Barnes-Miller broke through into the Big Final in the second of the double-header competition, before coming through in third place to notch his first podium appearance this season.
In the women’s races, Nina Sparks took a heavy fall in the opening competition on her way to consecutive eighth-place finishes, with the team now set to be reunited with fellow World Cup squad members Ollie Hill and Matt Hamilton for the Para Snowboard World Championships in Big White, Canada, which kick off this week.
Musgrave and Clugnet impress in Trondheim
Andrew Musgrave and James Clugnet were the pick of the performances in the opening races of the 2025 Cross-Country World Championships with a seventh-place finish in the 20km Skiathlon and 19th place in the Sprint Free respectively.
In a nail-biting Skiathlon race, Musgrave was right up in the leading pack from the midway point, leading with 2.5km to go before a brutally fast finish saw him nudged back into seventh place for a result which confirms his continued status as one of the world’s top Cross-Country skiers.
In the opening races of the Championships, James Clugnet demonstrated his enduring Sprint capabilities with a top 20 placing in the Sprint Free event, registering one of the best British Sprint results of the season to date in the process.
Elsewhere, Joe Davies looked in excellent form in his sole World Championships appearance finishing 24th in the Skiathlon, with Gabriel Gledhill taking 55th spot.
Jeannesson at the double in Almaty
Mateo Jeannesson delivered another pair of solid performances at the Almaty Mogul World Cups, landing 15th in Dual Moguls and 24th in Individual Moguls. In a season where Jeannesson has delivered consistent top-30 finishes, the 20-year-old’s Almaty performances continued to show why he is rated as one of the sport’s brightest young talents, and a real prospect in the coming seasons.
Two top 30s for Brits in Kranjska Gora
Billy Major and Dave Ryding secured top 30 berths in the Kranjska Gora Slalom, with Laurie Taylor narrowly missing out on the second run with a 33rd place finish.
On a famously challenging surface, Major was the pick of the Brits coming 22nd after a solid second run performance, with Ryding marginally back from him in 24th spot.
Davies and Johns both in top 30 in Gudauri
Ollie Davies and Scott Johns both featured in the top 30 in the Gudauri Ski Cross World Cup races, finishing 29th and 30th respectively in the second of the weekend double header.
Having struggled in qualification for the first World Cup, the British pair looked in immediately better form in the second coming through comfortably in qualification, before delivering solid races to finish inside the top 30 positions in the Georgian resort.
Barnes-Miller, Hamilton, Hill, and Sparks to represent Britain in Big White, Canada
Britain will be represented at the 2025 Para Snowboard World Championships by a four-athlete squad of James Barnes-Miller, Matt Hamilton, Ollie Hill, and Nina Sparks when competition gets underway next week.
Hosted at the long-standing Para Snowboard World Cup and NorAm venue of Big White in Kelowna, British Columbia, the 2025 World Championships features four days of racing across an eight-day schedule with action coming from Banked Slalom, Snowboard Cross, and Team Snowboard Cross events.
Britain will be represented by previous World Championships medallists James Barnes-Miller, Ollie Hill, and Nina Sparks, with Matt Hamilton rounding out the team for his World Championships debut.
The race programme opens with Banked Slalom qualifiers on 5 March, followed by finals on 6 March, Snowboard Cross on 9 March, and Team Snowboard Cross closing the event on 10 March.
Para Snowboarder scores first World Cup podium of season
James Barnes-Miller took his first World Cup podium of the season with bronze at the Steamboat Para Snowboard Snowboard Cross World Cup this evening.
In a strong Men’s Upper Limb classification line-up, Barnes-Miller’s third-place finish came behind Jacopo Luchini of Italy in first and Switzerland’s Aron Fahmi in second.
Barnes-Miller, who will be aiming to compete at his third Paralympic Winter Games in Milan-Cortina next year, finished fifth in the first of the Steamboat contests, with tonight’s result standing him in good stead ahead of the Para Snowboard World Championships, which are set to get underway in Big White, Canada, on 4 March
Mia Brookes and Jaz Taylor continued their podium crusades, while there were strong performances across Europe for British athletes
X Games ends with double podiums for Mia Brookes
The 2025 Winter X Games ended with two Mia Brookes medals in Slopestyle and the non-Olympic Knuckle Huck discipline, as well as an excellent fourth place in Big Air.
Coming into the Slopestyle competition as defending champion, Brookes looked set for a medal from the outset with her usual style and dynamism on full show, landing her a blistering 94.00 in her first playoff run to qualify for Finals in top spot. What followed was possibly the highest quality Women’s Snowboard Slopestyle contest in X Games history, as Brookes, Kokomo Murase, and Zoi Sadowski-Synnott each delivered sensational runs to blow the competition wide open. In the final reckoning, Brookes’ 88.33 was enough to comfortably secure bronze, with Murase taking silver with a second run 90.33, and Sadowski-Synnott landing a run for the ages for 94.66.
Later in the day, Brookes’ X Games Knuckle Huck debut yielded an excellent silver medal, coming in second behind Murase and ahead of Lily Dhawornvej of the US who took the bronze medal slot. In three visits to X Games, Brookes now boasts three medals and two fourth-place finishes, marking her out as one of the competition’s most reliably competitive athletes.
Elsewhere, Zoe Atkin fell just short of a third X Games medal of her won in the Freeski Superpipe, coming fourth in a highly competitive Final won by Cassie Sharpe. Atkin’s qualification score of 89.00 had been enough for a second place finish during Playoffs, and would have secured Gold in the Finals, but in a high grade Final, could only muster a 68.00 to leave her in fourth place.
Ryding and Taylor share 16th in Kitzbuehel
The legendary Kitzbuehel Slalom, won so memorably by Dave Ryding in 2021, yielded dual 16th place finishes for Ryding and Laurie Taylor amid a rainy 2025 edition. In imperfect conditions, Ryding and Taylor each navigated two challenging runs to give Britain another brace of top-20 finishes in a season marked by impressive consistency from the British Men’s Alpine team.
The result continues Ryding’s streak of top-20 finishes on the iconic Austrian course, which now stretches to an increadible eight consecutive seasons since a second run DNF in 2016, while for Taylor it marks a best ever result Kitzbuehel result, bettering his 19th place finish last year.
Earlier, the team came close to a three-man second run contingent, with only a sector two error preventing Billy Major from breaking into the top-30, while in the earlier Super G races, Roy-Alexander Steudle‘s first World Cup of the season finished agonisingly close to the top-30 with only a late error forcing him into 36th spot, the result marking a storming return from injury for the experienced Speed skier, and Britain’s best Men’s World Cup SG result since Finley Mickel took 33rd in Gardena/Groeden in 2006.
Taylor first and fifth in Melchsee-Frutt
Jaz Taylor maintained her grip on the Overall Telemark World Cup leaderboard with first and fifth place finishes at the back-to-back Melchsee-Frutt Parallel Sprint World Cup races.
A barnstorming display of head-to-head racing in the week’s first race saw Taylor comfortably hold off Argeline Tan Bouquet to secure her third World Cup victory and fifth podium of the 2025 season, before the weekend’s second race saw her off the podium for the first time in nine races, as Strom Goril Eriksen came through for victory, again ahead of Tan Bouquet of France.
Taylor’s overall standings lead now sits at 60 points with 485, with Tan Bouquet sitting second on 425, and Augustine Carliez in third on 355.
Gerken Schofield makes Moguls return in impressive Waterville showing
Makayla Gerken Schofield‘s return from injury saw the Beijing 2022 Olympian deliver a pair of hugely impressive performances to take 14th in Dual Moguls and 16th in the single event, having not skied competitively since March following a knee injury sustained during the summer. The results mark the 37th and 38th top-20 World Cup finishes of Gerken Schofield’s career, and confirms their continued ability to mix it with the best in the sport, even after almost a year on the sidelines.
Elsewhere, Will Feneley also made his comeback from injury almost two years on from his last World Cup appearance, while Mateo Jeannesson‘s 23rd and 19th in Dual and Single Moguls showed impressive consistency from the Junior World Champion. Cali Carr, meanwhile, took 31st in the single event.
Musgrave 14th in Engadin
Andrew Musgrave notched another top-20 World Cup finish at the Engadin 20km F Mass Start Cross Country race this weekend, finishing in 14th spot. His time of 53:39.3 put him less than 10s outside of the top-10 in a race dominated by the Norwegian and French teams, who secured nine of the top-10 spots. Teammate James Clugnet finished in 55th spot having taken 34th place in the Sprint Free races the previous day.
More weather impacts curtail Para Snowboard Lenk World Cup
The Lenk Para Snowboard Cross World Cup races saw a curtailed race programme after poor weather locally left the course out of action in the first day of competition, but recovered sufficiently to permit racing in the competition’s second day of action. Ollie Hill was the pick of the British competitors, taking eighth spot in the Men’s Lower Limb 2 category.
Some of the season’s most iconic contests land in a week of intense competition
X Games – Aspen
The Winter X Games rolls back into Aspen, with defending Slopestyle champion Mia Brookes and two-time X Games medallist Zoe Atkin set for action.
Brookes will drop into Snowboard Slopestyle and Big Air action having secured a stunning victory at least year’s Slopestyle competition, while Atkin is set for the Freeski Superpipe where she won Gold in 2023 and Silver in 2024.
X Games – British Line-Up:
- Zoe Atkin (Freeski Superpipe)
- Mia Brookes (Freestyle Snowboard Slopestyle and Big Air)
Alpine World Cup – Kitzbuehel
Alpine action heads to one of the most iconic World Cup venues on the calendar, with the Kitzbuehel Slalom and Super-G World Cups this weekend.
Site of Dave Ryding‘s history-making Slalom World Cup victory in 2022 and second place finishes in 2017 and 2023, this weekend will also see Billy Major and Laurie Taylor in Slalom action, while Roy-Alexander Steudle will start his first World Cup of the 2024/25 season in the Super-G after an impressive recovery from injury which has a slew of promosing EC and FIS race performances over the past month.
Kitzbuehel wOrld Cup – British Line-Up:
- Billy Major (SL)
- Dave Ryding (SL)
- Roy-Alexaner Steudle (SG)
- Laurie Taylor (SL)
Moguls World Cup – Waterville
The first Moguls World Cups of 2025 will see a full World Cup squad contingent compete across Moguls and Dual Moguls contests in Waterville, USA. Makayla Gerken Schofield and Will Feneley are set for their first World Cup competitions of the season after periods out with injury, while Mateo Jeannesson and Cali Carr are set to continue their campaigns after the Christmas and New Year hiatus.
waterville World Cup – British Line-Up:
- Cali Carr
- Will Feneley
- Makayla Gerken Schofield
- Mateo Jeannesson
Cross Country World Cup – Engadin
Engadin marks the next stop on the Cross Country World Cup circuit, with James Clugnet and Andrew Musgrave set for action, with the Swiss resort hosting World Cup competition for the first time since 2021.
Two days of racing for the British contingent will see Sprint Free and 20km Mass Start Free races set for the Saturday and Sunday.
Engadin World Cup – British Line-Up:
James Clugnet
Andrew Musgrave
Para Snowboard World Cup – Lenk
The Para Snowboard team move onto the next Snowboard Cross World Cup of the season in Lenk, with James Barnes-Miller, Ollie Hill, and Nina Sparks lining up for the second PSB World Cup meet of the year. The team will be looking to build on a solid set of performances in Pyha last weekend, with Matt Hamilton potentially set to join the team’s World Cup field pending confirmation of entry.
Lenk Snowboard Cross World Cup – British Line-Up:
- James Barnes-Miller
- Ollie Hill
- Nina Sparks
- Matt Hamilton TBC
Telemark World Cup – Melchsee-Frutt
Jaz Taylor will look to continue her podium streak at the Melchsee-Frutt Telemark Parallel Sprint World Cup races, with Hamish Ross and Jamie Dykes also both set to compete in the Men’s competition. With four podiums under her belt already this season, Taylor’s Crystal Globe defence has got off to a flying start which she will be looking to carry into Swiss territory at this week’s races.
Melchsee-Frutt Parallel Slalom World Cup – British Line-Up:
- Jamie Dykes
- Hamish Ross
- Jaz Taylor
Where to watch
British viewers can catch X Games 2025 live on X Games’ YouTube channel, while Cross-Country, Alpine, and Moguls action will be avaialble across Eurosport throughout the weekend.
Mia Brookes and Jaz Taylor delivered World Cup podiums on another weekend of British snowsport successes
Brookes dominant in Brilliant Laax showing
An already spectacular season from Mia Brookes added another World Cup victory as the teenager laid down a phenomenal display at the Laax Open Slopestyle World Cup.
After a comfortable qualifying run at a venue that practically counts as a home park, Brookes set the bar at an unmatchable 84.86 in the first Final run, ensuring her second run counted for little more than a victory lap. In a performance shot through with the style and technical supremacy that has become a hallmark of her riding, Brookes’ margin of victory stood at more than seven points, with Zoi Sadowski Synnott in second on 77.29 and Kokomo Murase in third on 71.15.
The performance gave Brookes her fifth World Cup podium and third World Cup victory of the season, while also marking a first World Cup victory in the Slopestyle discipline, which she famously took a World Championship title in at 16.
Elsewhere in Laax, Maisie Hill took 16th in the Women’s Freestyle Snowboard competition, Chris McCormick delivered his best Slopestyle World Cup performance of the season to finish in 16th in the Men’s Freeski, Siddhartha Ullah and Aaron Wild finished 28th and 34th respectively in Men’s Snowboard Halfpipe, Txema Mazet-Brown was solid with 30th in Men’s Freestyle Snowboard, and James Pouch came 52nd in Men’s Freeski.
Ryding and Major secure World Cup points in Wengen
On the notoriously challenging Wengen piste, Dave Ryding and Billy Major took more Slalom World Cup points with 19th and 26th place finishes respectively, while Laurie Taylor just missed out on a second run coming in 34th.
The result gives Ryding his sixth top-20 finish in seven World Cup races this season, while Major made the top-30 for the second consecutive World Cup, while Ryding’s second run saw him deliver the second fastest time in the field.
Taylor delivers double podiums in Carezza
Jaz Taylor‘s imperious Telemark Sprint World Cup form continued with first and second place finishes at the Carezza World Cup this week. The results leave Taylor, the defending Crystal Globe holder, top of the overall standings with 340 points to Argeline Tan’s 265, with Tan’s fellow French athlete Augustine Carliez in third.
In the Men’s races, Hamish Ross finished 23rd and 25th.
The Telemark tour continues into Melchsee-Frutt with Sprint and Parallel Sprint World Cups in the coming week.
Musgrave continues to impress in Les Rousses
The evergreen Andrew Musgrave continued his impressive form with an 11th place finish at the Les Rousses 10km F World Cup race this weekend, alongside 31st spot in the 20km C Mass Start. The result gives the 34-year-old his sixth top-20 finish of the season as well as his best ever result in Les Rousses, improving on the 17th place he secured at the same event in 2023.
And the rest…
The Pyha Para Snowboard World Cup saw heavy disruption after overnight rain ahead of the first day of competition saw the opening World Cup of the weekend cancelled due to dangerous conditions. In the second scheduled set of races, James Barnes-Miller was pick of the bunch with an eighth place finish.
Victoria Palla continued her Alpine Slalom World Cup progress with another outing in Flachau, but was unable to complete the first run, while in Ski Cross Ollie Davies managed 41st in the first World Cup’s qualification run followed by a DSQ in the second.
Header Image: Kristina Lubyova/GB Snowsport
Super snowboarders cap stunning week of British snowsport
Brookes brilliant in Beijing
Mia Brookes took the first of what are sure to be many career World Cup victories with a superlative performance at the Beijing Big Air World Cup. With a World Championships title and five World Cup podiums under her belt going into the Beijing contest, Brookes’ maiden World Cup victory came courtesy of a dominant Finals performance that showcased her new Dub 12 backed up by the Cab 1440 to put her top of the podium.
Elsewhere in Beijing, Maisie Hill‘s first Big Air World Cup appearance of the season landed a 21st place finish, while Txema Mazet-Brown finished the men’s contest in 38th place having come close to landing a Cab-18 on two attempts in qualification.
In the Freeski contest, Chris McCormick was again the pick of the bunch finishing 17th with a score of 156.75, with James Pouch in 34th and Tom Greenway placing 44th.
Hill lands Bronze in Landgraaf
The opening Para Snowboard World Cup of the season saw Ollie Hill take Bronze in the second of the week’s double header races. Qualifying for the Small Final, Hill’s time of 34.80s was enough to land him a podium spot ahead of America’s Zach Miller, in a reversal of the first day’s results. Gold and Silver were taken on both days by Italy’s Emmanuel Peranthoner and Australia’s Ben Tudhope respectively.
Elsewhere in Landgraaf, James Barnes Miller finished just outside the medals with a second day fourth place following fifth on the first day’s racing, while Matt Hamilton bagged a pair of eighth place finishes, and Nina Sparks took seventh and eighth.
Davies matches career-best World Cup result
Joe Davies demonstrated his rich potential at the Ruka Cross Country World Cup, finishing 16th in the 20km Free Mass Start, equalling his previous career-best World Cup finish in the process. The 23-year-old, racing in only his third year on the World Cup circuit, raced brilliantly to finish in a time of 46:36.5 a little over 20s outside of the top-10. In the first of the weekend’s races and in his less favoured discipline, Davies managed a 54th place finish in the 10km Classic.
Moguls season underway with promising results for Carr and JEannesson
The Moguls World Cup season got underway with promising performances from a youthful British World Cup Squad pairing of Cali Carr and Mateo Jeannesson. Carr, 17, finished 24th in a strong field for her best single Moguls World Cup result to date, while Jeannesson, who enjoyed a breakout season in 2023-24, finished 19th for a fifth top-20 finish since the start of his World Cup career in the 2021-22 season.
Palla builds experience in Killington
Victoria Palla‘s World Cup career continued with a sixth World Cup start, and her first in North America, at the Killington Slalom World Cup, ending in a first run DNF.
Taylor’s Telemark season opens with FIS race podium
Jaz Taylor‘s 2024-25 season got underway with a third place finish at the season-opening FIS Sprint races in Hintertux. The reigning Crystal Globe holder came in in 2:16.55 to finish in the Bronze medal slot, behind Goril Strom Eriksen in second and Argeline Tan Bouquet in first.
Ollie Hill’s World Cup season off to strong start with Para snowboard team’s first podium of season
Ollie Hill got the Para Snowboard World Cup season off to a strong start with Bronze at the second of this week’s Banked Slalom World Cup races in Landgraaf.
After a strong showing on the first day’s competition landed a fourth place finish, Hill went one better in the second of the World Cup double header, triumphing over the USA’s Zach Miller in the Small Final by just under two tenths of a second to take third spot.
Speaking afterwards, Ollie said:
“I was happy but disappointed yesterday to get fourth, missed out by a couple of tenths, and knew I needed to sort myself out today, work on a few of the mistakes we had yesterday. Today didn’t start so well, after I crashed out on the training run, but managed to get stronger and stronger throughout the day and the time when it needed to count the most, I put down a heater when I needed to, and there we go.
“Obviously it’s tight racing, but just really happy to be back in the mix. I want to thank the coaches and all the people who’ve supported me through the surgeries and the rehab over the past couple of years.”