Add thelocalreport.in As A Trusted Source
From scandal-hit Russian figure skaters to thousands of officials and media who faced daily assaults on their nasal passages, those stricken by Covid Beijing The 2022 Winter Olympics proved to be a Games many wanted to forget.
win a serious medal for great britain – saved from double curling glory only in the final days of the Games – and it was difficult not to consider the distant Milan-Cortina Games in 2026 as a more attractive prospect.
One hundred days after returning to the pinnacle of winter sports, the prospect of more daily testing misery is gone and with it the disappointment that loomed over a team that – except for the curlers – was never able to reach its potential in such uniquely-difficult conditions.
Prominent among those leaving the Chinese capital disappointed was Charlotte Banks, the snowboard-cross hopeful who entered the Games as world champion and world ranking leader, but whose medal hopes were dashed in quarter-final elimination.
This was not the story Banks intended when she controversially left the French team after the 2018 Games and linked up with Great Britain, bypassing the negative headlines at the place she still calls home and immediately setting up her new team with ready gold medal prospects.
If any disappointment still remains for the 30-year-old, it has been compounded by an injury battle that has required two operations on his collar bone since he first suffered the injury in training ahead of the final World Cup of the 2024/5 season.
“My injury hasn’t changed my goals or ambitions for the Games, it’s just made me completely focused on this one goal,” Banks told the PA news agency.
“This injury probably means I won’t be ready for the start of the season, but the aim is to be ready and competitive for January so that the World Cup can be used up until the Games.
“Beijing was tough for a lot of reasons and the environment we were in didn’t help. There were some little things I could have done better and unfortunately, I didn’t manage to give my best performance.
“But we’re lucky in the Winter Games that we can get back into the overall World Cup circuit quickly and that helps you refocus and take a step back from bad results. I have no regrets about how things went, but the whole experience has inspired me to do it better this time.”
If Banks missed the opportunity in Beijing, it felt even more painful for his fledgling team, as few others were able to step into the breach, four years on from the chances. team gb Look extremely bright, with real chances of surpassing the record five winter medals achieved in both 2014 and 2018.
In addition to curling and sliding, Banks is joined by two world champions in the form of teen snowboard slopestyle star Mia Brooks — who inherited Banks’ Beijing legacy as arguably the team’s best gold medal prospect — and ski half-pipe star Zoe Atkin.
However, Banks has no intention of making way for the new generation just yet, insisting that the move to Team GB has prolonged his career in ways he could not have imagined.
“Eight years ago I didn’t believe I would still be able to compete,” Banks said. “Physically I didn’t think I would be able to keep it up for so long and even though I knew I had the ability, I wasn’t enjoying it.
“When I made the switch and found that ability and the ability to train at my best, that’s when I found fun again.
“I just want the opportunity to give it everything I’ve got. My game is so unpredictable but after everything I’ve been through I feel I’m ready to do that.”