How winning gold lifted a weight off Bankes’ shoulderspublished at 12:56 GMT
12:56 GMT
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‘Lost for word’s – Bankes and Nightingale react to historic gold
Charlotte Bankes and Huw Nightingale went into the mixed team snowboard cross smarting from disappointments in their individual events and with a point to prove.
Bankes, 30, a former individual world champion and two-time overall World Cup winner, was left crestfallen when she exited the women’s event in the quarter-finals, just as she did four years ago in Beijing, despite being widely tipped for a medal.
Similarly, Nightingale, 24, was left wanting much more from himself after exiting the men’s competition in the round of 16.
Yet both found another level to claim a first British Olympic medal on snow, to add to the world title the pair claimed in this event in 2023.
“It’s immense. I think we push each other well and for me, I know that Charlotte Bankes is behind me and she’s such an incredible rider that it kind of loosens me up,” said Bolton-based Nightingale.
“I know that when I’m loose, I can ride really well and I think we’ve shown. The singles were tough but now there are tears of joy.”
For Hemel Hempstead-born Bankes, her first Olympic medal came at her fourth Winter Games and less than a year after she broke her collarbone – an injury that put her participation at Milan-Cortina in serious doubt.
“For me, it’s a relief, to get that medal and show our strength,” she Bankes. “That’s what’s been frustrating me, not being able to show what we’re capable of.
“We both didn’t perform perfectly in the individual. For me, it was a really bad performance, and to use that to come back and give it everything we’ve got… it takes that weight off my shoulders.”
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Great Britain win mixed team snowboard cross gold