Izzy Atkin wins Great Britain's first ever skiing Winter Olympics medal

Izzy Atkin became the first British skier to win an Olympic medal with a brilliant slopestyle bronze in PyeongChang.

The 19-year old is the youngest member of Team GB in South Korea but she kept her cool in a dramatic and tense final.

A bronze medallist at last year's World Championship and a World Cup winner, the teenager was always considered one of the team's top medal prospects.





And she delivered under extreme pressure, recovering from an error on her first qualifying run to reach the final in nerveless style.

She was lying fourth when she set off on her third and final run in the final but she scored 84.60 points to move into the podium places.

And then, in a virtual repeat of snowboarder Jenny Jones's bronze in Sochi four years ago, she endured a tense wait for another three skiers to complete their runs, including world silver medallist, Sweden's Emma Dahlström.

But Atkin's score was enough to claim a podium place, as Switzerland's Sarah Hoefflin won gold and compatriot Mathilde Gremaud took silver.

It's Team GB's second consecutive Olympic medal on snow but a first on skis - Gina Hathorn finishing fourth in the women's slalom at the 1968 Games in Grenoble.

Atkins said: "I'm just relieved and really happy, it's overwhelming.There were tons of big names in the field, it could have been anyone's medal.I knew I'd skied the best I could and I was just waiting for the last girls to drop. My heart was racing and I couldn't believe it.

"Watching the last few runs, I was really nervous. I wanted them to do well because we're all friends but also for me, it worked out.I'm speechless and stoked to win the bronze and represent Great Britain."

Katie Summerhayes also made a second consecutive Olympic final, following finishing seventh - the same result as four years ago in Sochi.

But the 22-year old from Sheffield has endured a nightmare build-up with injuries, including a fall before today's competition.

She said: "I definitely thought I wouldn't be able to drop in as my ankle was so sore. Up until this week I hadn't completed a slopestyle course since November, so this is my return to snow. In qualification I had to keep it pretty mellow and my ankle was killing me. I went up for the finals and decided to push it a bit more because I wanted to do myself justice. I had a crash in training this morning. However, this is the Olympics and I wanted to compete."

Second ever... ;)

J2SkiNews wrote:Second ever... ;)

Can you clarify this? Been wondering about it myself.

Also, my daughter has been so inspired by Izzy that she said to me this morning that she will be winning an Olympic medal in freestyle skiing in the future! I am planning my early retirement 8)

Alain Baxter won Britain's first skiing medal, a bronze in the slalom staged at Deer Valley, at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. He then failed a drugs test and had it taken of him. Normally that would be fair enough ...but the tale is that the 'drug' was an ingredient in the US version of a Vicks nasal inhaler he unwittingly bought in Park City to clear his sinuses and had no impact on his performance. There has been a long campaign to get his medal back and he has won multiple cases to clear his name but still he hasn't got his medal back. Obviously this doesn't detract from Izzy's fantastic achievement at all in any way and wonderful to hear it has sparked your daughter's ambition ...but for me it doesn't seem right to expunge Mr Baxter's achievement from history. There's a lot about it online, and all the other consequences of that Vicks sinex, eg: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/winter-sports/35292538

Much as I wish all the best for Alain Baxter, he did not win a medal. It is the responsibility of every athlete to ensure that they do not take any banned substances and while he may not have done it deliberately, he fell foul of this.

The record books show that he did not win a medal, even if he did the 3rd fastest time. Izzy Atkin is the first British Olympian to win a medal on skis.

Hmm, even if I agreed with that point, I would be unable to accept the re-writing of an actual thing that happened to say it didn't actually happen. I'm OK with "Alain Baxter won a medal but it was taken off him as he was a drugs cheat" ...if that's what you believe, and that therefore, "Izzy is the first Brit on skis to win and keep a medal," but as I say I'm just not comfortable with the pretending something that happened, didn't happen, particularly with all the negative impacts it had on funding for Britain's skiers and I understand how strongly most of the British team feel in favour of Alain's case. So regardless of whether or not he kept the medal, regardless of whether or not he is a drugs cheat, Alain Baxter won Britain's first Olympic medal on skis in February 2002. I definitely remember seeing it happen with my own eyes.

Nothing like the smell of controversy in the morning... 8)


Anyway, moving on, the most important takeaways here just have to be...

iainm wrote:Izzy Atkin became the first British skier to win an Olympic medal with a brilliant slopestyle bronze in PyeongChang. The 19-year old is the youngest member of Team GB

...and...

Jimbobilini wrote:my daughter has been so inspired by Izzy that she said to me this morning that she will be winning an Olympic medal in freestyle skiing in the future!

That is just brilliant! And, from Claire Balding's comments on the coverage yesterday, she's not alone!


The addition of Boarder and Ski Cross, the Slope-style and Big Air in recent years have transformed the Winter Olympics into a must-watch in our household. My 11-year-old is really disappointed to be back at school today as he's been glued to it for the last week.

He was gutted that Woodsy missed out on a medal, and is now desperate to get out to the mountains again ("we *are* going somewhere with a snow park at Easter, Dad").