GB ALPINE CHAMPIONSHIPS 2026: round-up
Season culminates in celebration of British Alpine racing talent
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Crystal Globes and Milan-Cortina medals highlight historic season
2025/26 season defined by extraordinary success draws to a close
GB Snowsport’s 2025/26 campaign drew to a close with a final burst of success on the last weekend of World Cup action, drawing the curtain on an historic season with late glory in Park & Pipe and Snowboard Cross competitions.
In a season headlined by Olympic and Paralympic medals for Charlotte Bankes and Huw Nightingale (Team Snowboard Cross Gold), Zoe Atkin (Freeski Halfpipe Bronze), and Neil Simpson and Rob Poth (Para Alpine Combined Silver), British athletes delivered four Crystal Globes (Kirsty Muir for Overall Freeski Park & Pipe and Slopestyle, Bankes for Snowboard Cross, and Atkin for Freeski Halfpipe) and 50 major podiums, marking the third occasion in the past four years Brits have breached the 50-podium mark, having never done so prior to the 2022/23 season.
The British podium count opened with Kirsty Muir’s maiden Freeski Big Air World Cup victory on 29 November in Secret Garden, followed a week later by Mia Brookes winning the Beijing Freestyle Snowboard Big Air World Cup, and Gus Kenworthy marking his first competitive appearance in four years with a third-place Snow League Freeski Helfpipe finish in China.
The ensuing months saw British skiers and snowboarders ascend major podiums a further 47 times, with Telemark legend Jaz Taylor the most frequent medal winner, accounting for 12 podiums including four gold medals, from her first victory of the season in December in Pinzolo to her last in March in Les Contamines.
Amid a deluge of stunning performances, the three Milan-Cortina medals are likely to live longest in the memory. First, Bankes and Nightingale broke historic new ground for British Winter Olympians with the nation’s first ever gold medal on snow in the Mixed Team Snowboard Cross, before Atkin closed out the Games with Freeski Halfpipe bronze on the final day of Olympic action in Milan-Cortina. Then, with the Paralympic Winter Games in full swing, Simpson and Poth roared back from two earlier fourth place finishes to take silver in the Para Alpine Combined.
Alongside the podiums came yet more incredible performances from Brits, with fourth place finishes for Muir and Brookes, historically strong performances for the Cross-Country team including best ever British Olympic results from Andrew Musgrave, and Musgrave and James Clugnet in the Men’s Team Sprint, and fifth and sixth place Para Alpine finishes for Menna Fitzpatrick and Katie Guest in the pair’s first races for two years after successive major injuries for Fitzpatrick. The Para Snowboard team made history twice over, meanwhile, with Nina Sparks becoming the nation’s first ever female Paralympic snowboarder, and Davy Zyw believed to be the first ever person with MND to compete at a Paralympic Winter Games.
In among the extraordinary successes seen at the highest levels, Britain’s next generation of talent also experienced breakthrough seasons, with thirteen athletes making their World Cup debuts across Park & Pipe, Alpine, Cross-Country, Ski Cross, Snowboard Cross, Para Alpine, and Telemark races. Meanwhile, waves were being made at Europa Cup level including a slew of Rail Jam podiums, and an historic moment in the Alpine EC field where Freddy Carrick-Smith became Britain’s first ever Giant Slalom EC winner with victory in Valloire.
This season’s performances mean that, in the four years since the Beijing Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, British athletes have now delivered 199 major podiums, 118 of which have come in Olympic and Paralympic disciplines, and with every discipline in which Britain has fielded a World Cup athlete having achieved at least one podium finish in that time.
As the final action of the season fades into the rearview mirror, the year’s lasting impression will be simple. Extraordinary, historic successes, and a strong hint at the exciting future ahead for GB Snowsport athletes.
