GB Snowboard Athletes Eye Up 2026 Winter Olympics

24th September 2024

Last modified on September 28th, 2024

This season is an Olympic qualifying year with GB hopes riding high for Milan-Cortina 2026.

GB has realistic chances of medal success and the best hopes are currently with Charlotte Bankes and Mia Brookes.

Katie Ormerod and Maisie Hill are also contenders if they are fit.

This coming season sees the competition hot up as the athletes seek valuable qualifying points to be able to compete at Milan-Cortina.

The first World Cup event of snowboard slopestyle has already taken place with competition in New Zealand.

GB had success:

Mia Brookes takes silver at first World Cup event of the season

The racing discipline start their season in China.

The season starts at the end of November with an event at Mylin, followed by a competition at Yanqing.

The season will kick off with back-to-back double events in these new locations.

Mylin, Inner Mongolia, will host Parallel Giant Slalom (PGS) and Parallel Slalom (PSL) competitions from November 30 to December 1, 2024.
The action will then move to Yanqing the following week, with both PGS and PSL events scheduled for December 7-8, 2024.

It’s the first time the snowboarders have been competing at elite level in China since the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022.

Snowboard alpine season kicks off in China with new venues

Since making its Olympic debut in 1998 snowboarding has grown and evolved in a variety of ways.

PlanetSKI first witnessed it first hand at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics where is was one of the stand-out successes of the Games.

Plaque marking the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. Image © PlanetSKI

The Olympic snowboarding program for Milan-Cortina 2026 has three freestyle disciplines:

Halfpipe
Slopestyle
Big air

There are two racing disciplines:

Snowboard cross
Parallel giant slalom

There will be 11 medal events held at the 2026 Games.

Each of the five disciplines will have a men’s and women’s event, plus snowboard cross will also see the return of the mixed team event which debuted in 2022.