A drinking session, a punch on the nose, an equipment malfunction. It sounds like a typical Saturday night in Hemel Hempstead or Bolton. But it turned out to be the unlikely recipe behind Team GB’s first gold medal on snow at the Winter Olympics – after 102 years of trying.
Amid dramatic scenes in Livigno, Charlotte Bankes and Huw Nightingale carved their way into Team GB history with a staggering display of devilry and nerve to secure mixed snowboard cross glory. For good measure, it was the first leg of what turned out to be Britain’s greatest day at the Winter Games with Tabitha Stoecker and Matt Weston also later winning gold.
“It’s immense,” Nightingale said afterwards, summing up the glorious chaos that had just unfolded in front of him. “It just feels unbelievable.”
His reaction was entirely understandable. Few had earmarked the British pair as gold-medal contenders after they both bombed out of the individual events. Such was their frustration that they ended up drowning their sorrows in a local pub. Yet on a magical afternoon in the mountains everything suddenly came together.
It very nearly went horribly wrong right at the start. In Team GB’s opening round, Nightingale was accidentally punched in the face and finished third out of four riders, 1.09sec behind second place. With only the top two teams progressing to the semi-finals, Bankes needed to show all of the class that brought her a world title in 2021 to get them through.
“The first round was a bit stressful,” Nightingale said. “I got punched in the face just in turn one, and I got a bit dazed. I knew it would be tough for Charlotte, but she did an amazing job.”
More drama was to follow in the semi-finals. Nightingale had enjoyed one of the runs of his life, whizzing over ramps, banks and fiendish turns and finishing second. But just as Bankes was about to go, the binding on her snowboard broke and it needed an emergency repair with a screwdriver before the gate came up.
“I broke a binding in that start gate and it put a bit of stress on the coaches and the wax techs,” Bankes said. “But they were great.”
The final presented a different challenge and when the British team looked across the start gate, they saw dangers everywhere.
The Australian team were led by the Olympic champion Josie Baff. The Italians had Michela Moioli, the reigning world champion and Olympic bronze medallist. And the French Loan Bozzolo, who won the mixed world title last year. But Britain had an ace of its own in Bankes.
Nightingale, who was born in Bolton but has spent much of his life in Austria, is regarded as a bit of a journeyman. But he was exceptional in securing second place behind France, just 0.14sec back, after his run. With Australia crashing, and getting a four-second penalty, Team GB knew a medal was pretty much secure. It was just a question of which colour.
Bankes was now in her element. She lurked behind Léa Casta before building her speed and cutting inside her four turns from the end. The last three bends and a final ramp were then negotiated with aplomb as Bankes finished 0.43sec ahead of Italy, who pipped France for silver.
“I knew Léa was going to pull away a bit in that start section,” Bankes said. “But I just focused on myself, and then used the draft and made the right choices.
“I’ve been struggling all week but I really found my carving, found the speed out of the turns, which is one of my big strengths, and then it was just letting the instinct do the talking.”
It has been some journey for Bankes, who was born in Hemel Hempstead but moved to L’Argentière-la-Bessée in the French Alps when she was four. This was her fourth Olympic Games, having competed for France in 2014 and 2018, and GB four years ago, and it seemed that her chance of Olympic glory might have gone when she came ninth in the individual event.
It turned out, however, that going for some drinks with Nightingale on Friday night had helped the pair to relax – and create history. “It was one beer … well, two beers and go back again,” she said.
“It really helped us to regroup and then we went riding yesterday, had fun, and enjoyed it.”
As Nightingale left the venue, he hugged several of his friends who had made the three-hour journey from Austria. “I’m sure I won’t sleep very good tonight,” he said, with a smile that told you that the greatest day of his life was only just getting started.
