Charlotte Bankes’ run of hot form continued, while Mia Brookes and Zoe Atkin impressed at Dew Tour
Bankes takes Gold in Cortina
Charlotte Bankes’ sensational recent form continued at this weekend’s Cortina Snowboard Cross World Cup, with the reigning Crystal Globe holder taking her third solo victory and fourth individual podium of the season.
In a scintillating display of Snowboard Cross racing, Bankes took top spot in qualifying and followed that up with first place finishes at Quarter and Semi Final stages, before putting in another outstanding performance to clinch victory.
Bankes now sits third in the overall season standings on 427 points, just 95 points behind Chloe Trespeuch in top spot.
Brookes and Atkin on fire at Dew Tour 20th anniversary competition
Mia Brookes and Zoe Atkin both took podiums at Dew Tour as the invitational event celebrated its 20th anniversary.
Brookes, competing in the Snowboard Streetstyle, put in a dominant display to further enhance her reputation as one of the world’s great rail riders, taking victory and best trick in commanding fashion. Atkin, meanwhile, added yet another podium to her season collection with Silver in the Freeski Superpipe contest, with her score of 94.00 coming just short of Eileen Gu’s 96.33 in first place, while also tying for highest amplitude recorded at 12’3”.
Gerken Schofield into top-10 in Almaty
Makayla Gerken Schofield notched their second top-10 of the season with tenth spot at the Almaty Moguls World Cup. After an injury-impacted season, Gerken Schofield’s tenth place finish marked their first Single Moguls top-10 of the season and eighth overall, as they looked to be getting back towards the form that saw them record seven top-10 finishes including a podium in the 2022/23 season, while they also recorded a 16th place finish in Dual Moguls.
Mateo Jeannesson finished just outside of the top-10 in both Single and Dual Moguls taking 23rd and 21st spots respectively.
Alpine and Para Alpine circuits fall victim to climate conditions
The Men’s Slalom and Para Alpine races scheduled for Kranjska Gora were cancelled owing to poor snow conditions amid on-going warmer weather conditions across Europe. The cancellations mean the end of Billy Major and Laurie Taylor’s Slalom World Cup seasons, while Dave Ryding will go on to compete at the Slalom Final in Saalbach. Para Alpine will be seeking to reschedule their own Finals, pending the outcome of negotiations with alternate venues.
2023/24 season explodes into life with day of stunning results
Charlotte Bankes and Huw Nightingale take sensational Team SBX Victory
Reigning Mixed Team Snowboard Cross World Champions, Charlotte Bankes and Huw Nightingale, opened their season in outstanding style with Britain’s first ever Team Snowboard Cross World Cup victory at Les Deux Alpes. In a strong field and amid challenging conditions, Nightingale and Bankes rode flawlessly to back up their breathtaking World Championships win with another superbly executed demonstration of Team Boardercross action.
The following day’s solo competition saw disappointment for Bankes as she failed to make it through the qualifying heats, but Nightingale recorded a personal best 16th place finish, improving on his previous PB set at the Mt. St. Anne World Cup in March.
Muir Majestic in Beijing
Returning to the site of the Beijing Olympic Winter Games Big Air competition, Kirsty Muir delivered an astonishing display of Big Air skiing to land second place among a field of the world’s strongest Big Air athletes. The result gave Muir her third career World Cup podium and a first in the Big Air discipline, having recorded top-10 finishes in her previous two Big Air competitions in Chur and Copper Mountain last year.
In the Freestyle Snowboard competition, Mia Brookes delivered another excellent performance to take fourth place in one of the highest calibre Big Air World Cup contests of recent years. Mia, who qualified in first place, looked on course for another podium position before high-scoring jumps from Anna Gasser, Tess Coady, and Miyabi Onitsuka nudged her just out of the top-3.
In the Men’s competitions, Billy Cockrell’s first World Cup of the season saw him finish in 39th spot, while Freeskiers Tom Greenway and Chris McCormick finished in 29th and 46th spot respectively.
Musgrave pushing for podiums in Cross-Country
Andrew Musgrave’s strong start to the Cross-Country World Cup season continued in Gallivare with fifth place in the 10km Free Interval Start. Once again, Musgrave was the only non-Norwegian skier in the top-5, finishing just 1.3s outside of the podium places and only 6.4s behind race winner Paal Golberg. The result continues Musgrave’s excellent early season form which has already delivered three top-10 finishes in four World Cup races.
Andrew Young put in an impressive showing to break into the top-30, while Joe Davies finished 34th putting him in third spot in the U23 rankings.
Jeannesson breaks new ground in Ruka Moguls World Cup
19-year-old Mateo Jeannesson obliterated his previous World Cup personal best with an astonishing sixth place finish at the Moguls World Cup opener in Ruka. Marking his first time making the Super Finals stage of a World Cup competition, Mateo skiied with skill and verve to push himself into the top-6 for the first time at World Cup level, as one of only two teenage skiers to make the top-10.
The result demolishes a previous personal best of 19th set in Deer Valley in February.
Para Snowboard Season gets underway in Landgraaf
The first events of the Para Snowboard season saw Nina Sparks and James Barnes-Miller both take a sixth and seventh place finish in back-to-back Banked Slalom World Cup races in Landgraaf. In the Europa Cup competition, Matt Hamilton was the standout performer with third and fourth place finishes, while Jack Silverwood took a fifth and a seventh, and Scott McNeice seventh and ninth.
GB Snowsport has today confirmed the selection of 14 athletes to the Para Alpine, Para Nordic, and Para Snowboard squads ahead of the coming season.
A ten-athlete Para Alpine squad featuring luminaries of the sport Menna Fitzpatrick and Neil Simpson is joined by a returning three-person Para Snowboard team, with Scott Meenagh named as the sole representative of the Para Nordic squad.
Fitzpatrick and Simpson are named alongside Shona Brownlee, Alex Slegg, Michael Kear, and VI Guides Katie Guest, Andrew Simpson, Rob Poth, Adam Hall, and Louise Harrison in a Para Alpine squad rich in experience and success over recent seasons.
The Para Snowboard squad remains unchanged from last season, with James Barnes-Miller, Ollie Hill, and Nina Sparks seeking to build on a series of high-grade performances last year which returned multiple World Cup and World Championships podiums across the team.
Scott Meenagh, meanwhile, returns in the Para Nordic squad having made history last season with a first ever World Championships medal, delivering on the rich promise that British Para Nordic skiing has shown throughout the past few years.
GB Snowpsort Para Programme Manager, James Redpath, said:
“The stability and success of our Para Snowsport squads has been really clear over recent seasons, and that’s reflected in the growing list of race and competition victories held by athletes named in these squads today.
“This is a really important season for all of our athletes, many of whom will have ambitions to compete at the next Paralympic Winter Games in Milan-Cortina in 2026, and I’d like to congratulate all of them alongside their coaching and support teams for their selections today.”
With pre-season training underway and a number of athletes making their way back from injury, the countdown to the season is on with the first Para Snowboard World Cup scheduled for Landgraaf in late November, while the Para Alpine World Cup season is slated to begin in Steinach am Brenner in mid-December. The Para Nordic calendar is expected to be confirmed shortly.
Full Squad Lists
Para Alpine
- Shona Brownlee
- Menna Fitzpatrick
- Katie Guest (Guide)
- Adam Hall (Guide)
- Louise Harrison (Guide – Invitational)
- Michael Kear
- Rob Poth (Guide)
- Andrew Simpson (Guide)
- Neil Simpson
- Alex Slegg
Para Nordic
- Scott Meenagh
Para Snowboard
- James Barnes-Miller
- Ollie Hill
- Nina Sparks
We look forward to working with Phil Smith in the build-up to the 2026 Paralympic Winter Games
GB Snowsport are delighted with the news of ParalympicsGB’s appointment of Phil Smith as Chef de Mission of the British team for the Milan-Cortina Paralympic Winter Games,
Phil, who has built strong relationships with members of the GB Snowsport Paralympic discipline squads, held the same role at the Beijing 2022 Paralympic Winter Games and has been a staunch supporter of British Paralympic skiers and snowboarders throughout his time at ParalympicsGB.
We look forward to working with Phil again in the coming years, and hope to enjoy more positive results at the Milan-Cortina Games following the significant successes seen in Beijing.
Find out more about Phil Smith’s appointment from the British Paralympic Association here.
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
///
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)
///
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
///
Ski Cross
Location: Corralco, Chile
Dates: 13 – 26 September
Athlete Attending: Ollie Davies
///
Snowboard Cross
Location: Corralco, Chile
Dates: 9 – 29 September
Athletes Attending: Charlotte Bankes, Huw Nightingale
///
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
///
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
///
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
///
Para Snowboard
Location: Perisher, Australia
Dates: 20 July – 17 August
Athletes Attending: James Barnes-Miller, Matt Hamilton (Invitational Athlete)
Para Snowboard double World Championships medalist triumphs in voting among elite athlete community
Nina Sparks – whose 2022/23 season included a stunning double medal winning showing at the Para Snowboard World Championships, and the Europa Cup overall title – has been named Athletes’ Athlete of the Month for March 2023.
With roughly 1,100 British Elite Athletes’ Association members from over 40 sports invited to vote, Sparks earned the trophy following a monrh of remarkable personal successes.
Speaking after the vote, Nina said:
“It’s absolutely amazing. To be honest, I didn’t think I’d win – so it’s awesome that I have. The paragraph that was written about me for my nomination, I read it and was like: ‘Oh, wow. Yeah, that is quite cool – I have achieved a lot this season!
“Charlotte Bankes [Snowboard Cross World Cup member and fellow Athlete of the Month nominee] is one of the people I find extremely inspiring, so the fact we were nominated in the samemonth was like ‘Oh, wow! This is cool.’ – I find her so inspiring.”
Congratulations, Nina!
Crystal Clobe winner and double World Championship medallist on March British Elite Athletes Association award shortlist
Snowboard stars Charlotte Bankes and Nina Sparks have been named in a four person shortlist for the British Elite Athletes Association Athlete of the Month award.
Voted on by elite athletes from across the British system, Bankes and Sparks have been nominated for a series of phenomenal performances in Snowboard Cross and Para Snowboard, which saw Bankes take the 2022/23 Crystal Globe alongside a Team Snowboard Cross World Championships title, while Sparks secured the overall Europa Cup title alongside two World Championships medals at the Para Snowboard World Championships in La Molina.
Alongside our two nominees are shooter Seonaid McIntosh and wheelchair fencer Gemma Collis, with the winners to be announced by the BEAA after the results of the athlete vote are confirmed.
The British Elite Athletes Association is the independent representative body for elite British athletes across over 40 sport, supporting and empowering its members by providing confidential guidance, collating and sharing the athlete voice, and equipping athletes with the skills needed to thrive in life.
Nina Sparks’ brilliant Para Snowboard World Championships brought a second medal to her La Molina haul
Following her World Championships bronze at the La Molina Para Snowboard World Championships last week, Nina Sparks took an outstanding LL2 Dual Banked Slalom silver medal on a riveting day’s action amid challenging conditions in Spain.
Sparks’ performance saw her finish in the runner-up spot behind Lisa Bunschoten of the Netherlands, and ahead of Poland’s Natalia Siuba-Jarosz in third place.
Speaking afterwards, Nina said:
“It’s absolutely crazy. Coming in and winning one was one thing, but winning another today was just beyond my wildest dreams. I’ve managed to put into practice all the tips and tricks I’ve been working on this year, and managed to come away with two medals.
“Qualifying in second was really cool, I didn’t really expect that. The semi-final was a super tight race, I think we ended up with something like 0.12s between us; it meant I could just go for it in the Big Final, and came out with the silver.”
Charlotte Bankes took brilliant double World Cup wins as Britain’s 2022/23 medal count grew to 39
In her first World Cup competitions since the Bakuriani World Championships, Charlotte Bankes sealed brilliant back-to-back World Cup gold medals in the Sierra Nevada Snowboard Cross World Cup. The results mean she has now taken victory in each of the last four World Cup races and leaves her top of the 2023 Snowboard Cross Cup Standings, with 478 points to Chloe Trespeuch’s 460.
In both races, Bankes held off a strong challenge from Trespeuch, with the French Snowboard Cross star taking silver on each occasion, leaving the race for the Crystal Globe in the balance as the season moves towards its conclusion.
The men’s races, meanwhile, saw Huw Nightingale finish in 48th place.
There was also good news from the Para Snowboard Snowboard Cross races at the La Molina World Championships, where Nina Sparks took an excellent bronze medal in the opening weekend of the Championships. James Barnes-Miller and Ollie Hill were left empty handed after the opening races of the competition, but with Dual Banked Slalom races still to come, Britain has a chance to add further to an already excellent World Championships haul this season.
Sparks’ and Bankes’ results pushed Britain’s World Championships, World Cup, and X Games medal haul for the season to a scarcely believable 39 with podiums in every single discipline across the winter.
At Europa Cup level, Mateo Jeannesson took a superb Dual Moguls victory at the Engadin Europa Cup competition. One of the youngest competitors in the field, Jeannesson’s victory was the second time he’s climbed the podium this season, after victory in the Hintertux Open in November. Mateo’s brother, Tom, finished in 15th in Dual Moguls following a superb fourth place in Single Moguls a day earlier.
There was disappointment in Alpine at the Are World Cup for Charlie Guest and at the Kranjska Gora World Cup for Charlie Raposo, with each posting a DNF amid tricky race conditions.
In Telemark, Jazmin Taylor recorded the third World Cup podium of her season with bronze at the Krvavec Sprint World Cup, while in Cross Country Andrew Musgrave finished just outside of the top-10 with an 11th place finish in the Oslo World Cup 50km F Mass Start, which saw a remarkable Norwegian clean sweep of the top-10 places. Joe Davies, meanwhile, took a superb victory at the NCAA Championships with first place in the 10km F before a very promising sixth in the 20km C Mass Start.