Charlotte Bankes has seen the path past Olympic devastation thanks to a first crack at the bonkers boardercross mixed team event.
It has been a week of missed opportunities for Team GB in Beijing, none more so medal favourite Bankes’s quarter-final exit in the individual competition.
The chance to get back on the board alongside Olympic debutant Huw Nightingale always felt like the best way to start the long road back - and they finished sixth, flirting with a medal.
“I’m not quite over it, but the team has worked incredibly hard to get me back on it,” said Bankes, whose race was live on discovery+, Eurosport and Eurosport app
“Having Huw up here was a good motivation to push as hard as I could to have a great race nd not focus on what happened beforehand.”
The scale of the shock at Bankes’s inability to get through the first round of individual finals clearly took a toll on all around her, including her 20-year-old team-mate.
“She’s been like an older sister to me,” said Nightingale, who also exited in the quarter-finals of the men’s event.
“Charlotte’s been on the circuit for a while and she knows the ups and downs.
“It was tough because nobody was expecting her to go out and with me, I thought I could have done a bit better too.”
It was with those still-raw emotions that Bankes and Nightingale took a free swing at a frenetic mixed team event, making its Olympic debut.
Men take on the course first and the subsequent time advantage is transferred to his female team-mate, who tries to catch up or increase the lead.
It was always likely to be the former given Bankes is world number one and Nightingale has just embarked on his first season at senior level, ranked 89th in the world.
It’s fair to say they have very different expectations at this Games.
“I came here with nothing to lose and if I came last, I came last,” said Nightingale. “Anything better than that is a bonus in my book.”
In their quarter-final, Nightingale handed over a 1.51-second deficit to Bankes. She stormed past all three rival teams and won the run-off quite comfortably, by 0.13 seconds.
It was a searing run that put the rest of the 15 teams in the wide-open field on notice.
“Huw did a good run at the start and then I just needed to get into draft and focus on my start and just try catch up as much time as possible,” said Bankes.
“I was just trying to generate as much speed as I could, to push as hard as i could to get as close as possible.
Nightingale admitted: “When you’re so far behind, in your mind, you think you should just give up.
“Knowing Charlotte is still up there and knowing I can do the best possible time for her, it gives me motivation to know she’s also giving her best to try to get whatever we can get.”
In the semi-final, the gap was just too big for Bankes to make up.
She actually closed in even further at the second attempt, slicing off nearly two seconds from the 3.34s differential, but only managed third.
Bankes and Nightingale then finished second in the small final for sixth overall, a pleasing return on what was their first event together.
It seemed to help Bankes put things in perspective somewhat, to see past the grim reality of this Games. She is on course to become the second British snowboarder after Katie Ormerod to pick up a prestigious Crystal Globe, awarded to overall World Cup winner.
“There’s a lot more out there than the Olympics,” she said. “There’s some good stuff to finish off the season and then World Championships next year, World Cups.
“I just want to give it my best and have fun on a snowboard.”
Watch All the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 live on discovery+, Eurosport and Eurosport app
