Mia Brookes left it late to qualify for the Winter Olympics Big Air final but produced one of the best runs of the night to progress after a nervy start.
The 19-year-old recorded a total score of 167 on a freezing cold night at Livigno Snow Park, finishing third to ensure she can compete for gold on Monday.
Going ninth of 29 competitors, she left herself with it all to do after miscontrolling the landing on her first jump and hitting the deck, scoring a mere 29.75 and slotting into 24th place.
She was up quickly but with each snowboarder’s two best out of three runs counting towards qualification, and only the best 12 athletes progressing, she needed to be perfect on her second and third runs in order to make the final.
And she nailed her second attempt at the trick, a backside 1260 melon grab, scoring 89.00 – the second highest score of the night – to move up to 22nd.
The teenager from Cheshire ran over to hug parents Nigel and Vicky at the barrier after successfully completing the jump and beamed after keeping her hopes of qualifying alive.
And while she could not improve on that score with her third trick, a slightly safer cab 1060 stalefish, her score of 78.00 was enough to bump her up the rankings and into the top 12. She celebrated by racing over to her parents once again – although she went the wrong way and had to jump the fence to get there.
“That was insane, honestly,” she said afterwards. “I loved it. Every minute was awesome, but definitely quite scary. After that first run, I was so nervous. You just have to take your time at the top, not rush into anything.”
Asked about the heightened pressure to deliver a brilliant second run, she said: “I think it really came out of me in an athlete way, just keeping cool under the pressure, not really making any rash decisions or rushing anything, so it was nice to see that coming from inside myself.
“That third one was special to land that one. You’re definitely in the air, like, thinking about it in the back of your mind, spinning, like, oh, my God, I’ve got to land this. So it was really special.
“I think, honestly, as much as I hate it in the moment, it’s moments like that that I just love. When you land, it’s the best feeling on the planet. That’s what I love.”
The youngster is known for her unusual approach to competing, listening to heavy metal music – she named Metallica, Megadeth, Pantera, and Judas Priest among her favourites – to “block out the noise” and get in the zone.
Fellow Briton Maisie Hill did not qualify however, after only scoring 20 for falling on her first run and failing to improve on her second, with a score of 57.25 on her third run not enough to send her through.
Brookes is one of Britain’s biggest hopes of a medal in Milano-Cortina and has the chance to go for gold in two events, Big Air and slopestyle.
She is the reigning X Games champion in slopestyle having won the title for a second time last month, and picked up an additional bronze medal in Big Air to underline her status as one of the favourites at Livigno Snow Park this week.
She won the only Big Air World Cup event she has entered this year, in Beijing in December, and won back-to-back World Cup crystal globes in the discipline in 2023-24 and 2024-25.
Hopes are high for a ‘Magic Monday’ for Team GB, in particular in snowsport, with both Brookes and freestyle skier Kirsty Muir in action.
21-year-old Scot Muir is a medal contender in the freeski slopestyle having qualified in third. Brookes added: “I’ve grown up with Kirsty. We’ve known each other since we were younger, so to go into an Olympic final on the same day as her for Great Britain is really special.”
Curlers Jen Dodds and Bruce Mouat also have the chance to guarantee a medal in the mixed doubles with a win in their semi-final against Sweden in Cortina, where they are the top seeds having lost just one of nine round-robin matches.
