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- Kirsty Muir and Mia Brookes Agonisingly Close to Olympic Medals for Team GB
9 February was shaping up to be a breakthrough night for Team GB snowsports. Two medal chances. Two athletes in career-best form. And, ultimately, two results that came down to the finest of margins. — and for a while, it truly felt within reach. Kirsty Muir and Mia Brookes both mounted serious podium challenges in Ski Slopestyle and Snowboard Big Air. In the end, it was heartbreakingly close: two fourth-place finishes, and two margins that will linger.
Both athletes arrived in formidable form, each having claimed X Games gold just weeks before the Games, a clear signal that medals were well within their grasp.
Slopestyle demands a mix of technical rail work and high-impact jumps, with riders judged on creativity, amplitude, execution and overall flow. From three runs, only the best score counts, leaving no room for error.
Kirsty Muir / Chris Singer / Red Bull Content Pool
Ski Slopestyle – Muir Misses Bronze by 0.4 Points
Muir saved her best for last.
Sitting outside the podium places, the 21-year-old delivered a sensational final run, capped by a huge double cork 1440 on the closing jump, a trick requiring four full rotations and two off-axis flips. It was bold. It was clean. It was medal-worthy.
But the judges awarded 76.05, leaving her just 0.4 points shy of bronze.
Mathilde Gremaud secured gold, effectively sealing victory when Gu Ailing fell on her final rail attempt. Canada’s Megan Oldham claimed bronze.
The emotion was immediate. Fighting back tears, Muir told TNT:
“I’ll be proud of myself in a minute. But I’m in a bit of a hole right now.”
There’s still unfinished business. Muir returns for Ski Big Air qualification on 14 February at 18:30 GMT, another shot at the podium.
Snowboard Big Air – Brookes Pushes the Limits
Under the floodlights, Snowboard Big Air delivered its usual drama. Riders launch off a single massive jump, with their two best scores from three attempts deciding the medals. It’s pure spectacle and pure pressure.
Brookes, still a teenager but already rewriting record books, went all in.
Needing a huge score on her final run, she attempted a backside 1620, four-and-a-half rotations, a trick that had only been landed once before in women’s competition. In the air, it looked perfect. But she slightly over-rotated, caught her heel edge on landing, and slid out, a costly deduction.
Clean, it almost certainly would have challenged for a medal.
Japan’s Murase Kokomo clinched gold with a clutch final run, leapfrogging New Zealand’s Zoi Sadowski-Synnott. Bronze went to the Republic of Korea’s Yu Seungeun.
“It was insane. Obviously, I’m bummed I couldn’t land that last trick,” Brookes told BBC Sport reporters.
“I had too much spin on it, which I didn’t think I would. Maybe I should have done an 1800 instead!” Brookes concluded with the BBC.
Brookes isn’t done either. She returns for Snowboard Slopestyle qualification on 16 February at 09:30 GMT.
So Close! But Not Finished
Fourth place hurts. Missing bronze by less than half a point hurts even more. But both Muir and Brookes proved something undeniable: they belong at the very top.
With Big Air and Slopestyle still to come, Team GB’s medal hopes remain very much alive.
Follow Team GB’s snowsport journey with full results, athlete profiles and event previews right here on the Ski Club website
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