Snowboarders Charlotte Bankes and Huw Nightingale reveal how pre-race pints helped them to assert historic GOLD for Great Britain at Winter Olympics
Out of the madness of the most chaotic sport at these Winter Olympics, Charlotte Bankes and Huw Nightingale carved their way to a stunning gold medal in the snowboard mixed team cross.
In quite extraordinary scenes in Livigno, the Team GB pair outran the Italians, French and Australians, not to mention their own regrets from earlier in the week, by securing Team GB’s first ever Games title on snow.
To put that line of distinction into some kind of perspective, Britain has been sending expeditions to this curious gathering since 1924 and never before have they gone higher than a bronze on the white stuff. Ice? That’s fine. They win on ice. Skeletons run on ice.
But not on snow. They find that more slippery.
And so there was history attached to this moment, as well as stirring tales of redemption.
The latter applies more to Bankes, formerly a world champion in the individual but forever haunted when she gets to the Games. She was fancied for a medal under her own steam at both Beijing 2022 and here and each time exited in the quarter-finals – on Friday, that departure was conducted in a flood of tears.
Charlotte Bankes and Huw Nightingale claimed a stunning gold medal in the snowboard mixed team cross
The pair claimed Great Britain’s first ever gold medal on snow and their second gold of the Milano-Cortina Games
Bankes crossed the line first ahead of French snowboarder Lea Casta
Nightingale? The expectations run far lower, which meant there were no headlines when he finished 26th in the men’s event. But out of their challenges came one exceptional recovery.
That started with a drinking session to clear the minds and culminated with a startling performance here, with the Brits somehow avoiding all of the carnages and crashes that come with racing snowboards around a tight track.
The final result? They finished 0.43sec ahead of the Italians, having taken the lead with three bends to go. Bronze was collected by the French. Remarkable.
Bankes had done the heavy lifting in winning their quarter-final, but it was in the semi-final where Nightingale came to the fore.
The theory, perhaps unkindly nurtured, has always been that so long as he stays up right, Bankes can do the rest. And yet it was Nightingale who built the platform for their progression to the final with a superb run to second behind the French in his portion of the race.
From there, a minor and unexpected drama ensued – Bankes was spotted fiddling with her bindings and before long screwdrivers and a degree of panic were in play. With the issue fixed, she overtook the French on the last third of this snaking circuit and their prize was the best lane for the four-way showdown.
Could they do it? That was a tall order. The Australian had Josie Baff, who won gold on the day Bankes left in tears after the individual, and the Italians were led by Michela Moioli, the reigning world champion and bronze medallist on Friday. To complicate the optimists further, the French team was led by Loan Bozzolo, who won the mixed world title last year. Tricky.
But Nightingale had the race of his life to hand over in second, behind only the French. Better news, if that’s not too partisan, is that the Australian Adam Lambert crashed near the end. They were four seconds behind but with a clean run from Bankes a medal was certain.
And yet more was on the table. Bankes grabbed it three turns from home, a sweeping left-hander, when she passed on the inside of France’s Lea Casta. Finishing with a scream, Bankes guided Team GB to their second gold of the Games.
