“Just before the last dragon, I catch my heel edge and suddenly I’m skidding, losing speed, trying to keep it together. Then I hear Belle Brockhoff, right behind me, scream and crash and I’m like: ‘Oh shit.’ And I’m telling myself: ‘Stay on your feet, you can’t crash. You’re not allowed to do that.’”
Charlotte Bankes’s mind is tumbling back in time, to the scene of her greatest victory, the 2021 world snowboard cross championships in Sweden. She has watched it back only a couple of times – it’s not a perfect race, which makes her wince – but she retains total recall. As she talks through the final, move by move, moment by moment, every zig and jump and zag, it is as if she is watching on ultra HD.
