In a sport famed for its unpredictability and high-octane thrills and spills, the British snowboard-cross narrative remains crushingly consistent.
Another Olympics, another meek quarter-final exit for a decorated contender who had arrived with realistic hopes of reaching the podium.
In scenes eerily reminiscent of the frozen mountains above Beijing four years ago, Charlotte Bankes, the former world champion and two-time overall World Cup winner, slid out fourth and last in her last-16 heat.
“I messed up,” admitted a crestfallen Bankes, who headed to Italy on the back of a World Cup win in China in January, her first since her Olympic preparations were hit when she broke her collarbone in April.
“Today is nothing to do with injuries and all that. It’s just a disappointing performance from me and I’m just sorry to everybody watching.
“It could have been a great show – we’re here in Milan, my family’s here, but unfortunately I didn’t manage to pull it off.”
Competing at her fourth Games, having represented France in 2014 and 2018 before switching to Great Britain in 2022, Bankes refused to blame a poor individual ranking round, which placed her ninth.
It meant she was placed in a tougher bracket and despite coming home first in her four-strong heat in the round of 32, she was never in the reckoning in her subsequent quarter-final, which also featured the eventual gold and silver medallists, Australia’s Josie Baff and Eva Adamczykova of the Czech Republic.
“It made it a bit more difficult but if I want to go and win I have to beat anybody anyway,” shrugged Bankes.
“Often having quarter-finals that tough is actually easier for me, and I normally find solutions. I’m not putting it down to the bracket, I’m putting it down to me, my choices, my mistakes on track. You can’t make them on this track.”
Bankes will now look to refocus on the mixed team event on Sunday, when she will reprise her partnership with Huw Nightingale that yielded a World Championship gold medal in Georgia in 2023. One day prior to that win, Bankes had crashed out in the first heat of her individual event.
“I haven’t ridden my best this week, but I don’t have a choice but to step up and find something,” added Bankes. “We could look at the World Champs in 2023 where it was kind of like this.
“Anything can happen in our sport, and unfortunately it didn’t go my way today.”
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