GB Snowsport Racks Up Strong Results
15th March 2021
Last modified on May 12th, 2021
There have been some stellar performances from Great Britain’s top skiers and snowboarders, with a host of personal bests and a World Championships medal.
Top honours go to freestyle skier, Zoe Atkin.
The 18-year-old won bronze in the ski halfpipe at the World Championships in Aspen in Colorado on Friday.
She saved her best for last, scoring 90.5pts in her third run to take the bronze medal behind China’s Ailing Gu (93 pts) and Rachael Karker (91.75pts) of Canada.
It’s Atkin’s first medal at a major championships though she was a World Cup winner at the age of 16.
Atkin’s older sister, Izzy, a bronze medallist at the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics, did not make it to the final of the ski slopestyle event, though she has another chance in the big air contest. The qualification round takes place at 1920hrs GMT on Monday evening.
Another outstanding performance came from 16-year-old Scot, Kirsty Muir.
In her first senior World Championships, she was the only British female to make it through to the 8-woman ski slopestyle final, finishing in an impressive 6th place.
She was the youngest skier in the final.
“I’m so happy to have come 6th place in Slopestyle at my first World Champs!” she said.
“What an incredible experience to ski in the finals.”
With two GB teenagers proving they can hold their own with the world’s best, the future is looking bright ahead of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.
In the men’s ski slopestyle the defending World Champion James Woods was lying in first place after the first of his three runs but could not hold on to the top spot.
Woodsy was looking odds-on for a third place finish – and what would have been his fourth World Championships medal – until the final skier to take to the course on the final run of the competition overtook him and Woodsy was pushed down to fourth place.
Andri Ragettli (Switzerland) won the event with Colby Stevenson (USA) second and Alex Hall (USA) in third.
Fourth place is still a great result for one of the veterans of the British Squad who spent most of 2020 recovering from a serious knee injury.
The 29-year-old posted a video of one of his runs on Facebook and said it was great to put down some skiing he was proud of again.
“The ability of everyone in the Freeski game right now is off the charts and I’m proud to be rubbing shoulders with the kings and queens of what truly is a new ski generation. We’ve had the baddest of the bad come before and they left some seriously big shoes to fill but you’d better believe these kids are doing just that 
“As for me, I love this game and to everyone that keeps asking me if I’m done like getting older is a burden, you can dream on. Maybe this time next season I’ll of had some practice 
“
https://www.facebook.com/JamesWoodsyWoods/videos/1882418841924663/
The GB Snowsport Head Coach Pat Sharples, said he was proud of the team out in Aspen, giving a special mention to coaches Jamie Matthew and Joe Tyler.
“What awesome performances from everyone and the team did 
super proud. But have to say, I thought the judging was a bit whack. 
“Lots to be super positive about moving forward. Thanks to everyone for all the continued support and the hard work and passion from the GB Snowsport crew.
“Huge respect for today James ‘Woodsy’ Woods, Jamie Matthew, Kirsty Muir, Joe Tyler 
“
The Snowboard and Freeski World Championships have, unusually, been taking place across four different countries due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The moguls and aerials competitions were in Almaty in Kazakhstan.
The best of the Brits were Thomas Gerken-Schofield, who finished 6th in the dual moguls and Lloyd Wallace, the only Brit in the aerials, who just missed the finals and finished 15th.
Wallace went better in the World Cup Finals also held in Almaty just after the Championships.
He was 9th – his second best ever result.
“With my result today, I can confirm that I have completed my Olympic quota results for GB qualifying and just need to stay in the top 25 in the world until February 2022,” Wallace said.
“I finished my comeback season as 17th in the World and have broken records. The plan is for next year to be bigger and better still “
Other results of note include 14-year-old Mia Brookes’ Europa Cup victory in snowboard slopestyle in Switzerland last week.
It was her second Europa Cup win and her fourth medal this winter.
And in alpine, Charlie Guest made it into the World Cup top 20 for the first time with a stunning race in the women’s slalom in Åre, Sweden, at the weekend, to finish 16th.
The result comes off the back of two previous best performances when Guest finished 23rd in consecutive races.
Coming up for GB Snowsport
Freeski World Championships
There are Brits still in action at the Freeski World Championships.
On Monday (15th March), the qualification rounds take place for the men’s and women’s ski big air.
GB competitors are: James Woods, Gus Kenworthy, Chris McCormick, Tyler Harding, Harry Wright, Izzy Atkin, Kirsty Muir and Katie Summerhayes.
The finals will be shown live on the BBC Red Button, BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website (for viewers in the UK) from 15.50-17.50 GMT on Tuesday 16th March.
Alpine
World Cup Finals, Lenzerheide, Switerland 19-21 March
- 19th (Team Event) Charlie Raposo, Alex Tilley, Charlie Guest, final spot TBC
- 21st (Men’s Slalom) Dave Ryding
Europa Cup, Reiteralm, Austria 18-21 March
- 18th – (Men’s GS) Charlie Raposo
- 19th – (Men’s Slalom) Billy Major, Laurie Taylor, Rob Poth, Max Vaughton
- 20th – (Ladies’ GS) Alex Tilley
- 21st – (Ladies’ Slalom) Alex Tilley, Charlie Guest
Snowboard Cross
World Cup, Veysonnaz, Switzerland 20 March
- Charlotte Bankes
Ski Cross
World Cup Veysonnaz, Switzerland 21st March
- Ollie Davies
- Emma Peters (both are on 1st reserve. TBC if they will compete)
Para Nordic
IPC World Cup, Vuokatti, Finland 19-26 March
- 19th – (Cross Country Middle) Steve Arnold, Callum Deboys, Scott Meenagh
- 20th – (Cross Country Sprint) Steve Arnold, Callum Deboys, Scott Meenagh, Steve Thomas
- 22nd – (Cross Country Long) Steve Arnold, Scott Meenagh
- 23rd – (Cross Country Short) Steve Arnold, Callum Deboys, Scott Meenagh, Steve Thomas
- 25th – (Biathlon Sprint) Steve Arnold, Callum Deboys, Scott Meenagh
- 26th – (Biathlon Individual) Steve Arnold, Callum Deboys, Scott Meenagh
