Another day, another British medal prospect locked in a battle with their own tears. To the list of Team GB’s fallen contenders in Italy, we can add Charlotte Bankes, whose best performances on a snowboard continue to occur away from the Winter Olympics.
As with Beijing 2022, this multiple winner of world-level prizes emerged from the wacky races of the snowboard cross discipline with a ninth-placed finish.
She will have another chance in the mixed event alongside Huw Nightingale on Sunday, but for now, the sting can be measured by the fury Bankes exhibited at the close and the despair of her words to reporters.
‘Disappointing,’ was her blunt summary of finishing last in her quarter-final and it was written across her face, too.
At the best of times, snowboard cross is a madcap lottery – in this case a 1.1km charge over mounds and around bends in hand-to-hand combat with three other racers. Ordinarily, Bankes thrives in the chaos, with a world title in 2021 and a silver in 2025, but in this grandest forum the jeopardy has repeatedly got the better of her.
Consolation will come from knowing that two of the women who relegated her to last place in the quarters – Josie Baff of Australia and the Czech Eva Adamczykova – went on to win gold and silver respectively. But there was no escaping that a poor qualifying run put her so low in the seeding that she could not delay meeting a pair of athletes you would rather face in the final.
Charlotte Bankes (right) finished a disappointing ninth in the Women’s Snowboard Cross
The madcap event is one of the most enjoyable to watch at the Winter Olympics
Bankes was despondent and admitted she had not found solutions to get faster this week
Bankes offered no sugar-coating for the result, saying: ‘I’m putting it down to me, my choices, my mistakes. I just never made the right choice of line, was never in the right position to overtake.’
She added: ‘I feel like I’ve done exactly the same as four years ago. We have worked incredibly hard to improve that but I haven’t made any difference today.
‘I have been struggling with the track all the week but we thought we found solutions. I really wanted this one. Too many mistakes.
‘I’m sorry, I was hoping to put on a better show. It can be cruel. We have worked incredibly hard over the last four years to get a good result.
‘Unfortunately, the team did all the work behind me and I didn’t manage to pull it off.’
The result will increase the pressure on the British snow team, whose hierarchy were already bristling at a post-Beijing funding cut following their failure to win any medals.
At these Games, they arrived with seven realistic medal shots, but so far have recorded fourth-place finishes through Mia Brookes and Kirsty Muir, who each have stronger events to come, and this outcome for Bankes.
Alongside Nightgale at the weekend, she will have a decent chance to get the group off the mark.
