Winter Olympics 2026: Charlotte Bankes exits snowboard cross in quarter-finals
Charlotte Bankes hoped to “put on a better show” as her Olympic hoodoo continued with a quarter-final exit from the snowboard cross – in another missed medal chance for Team GB.
Bankes, appearing at her fourth Games, is a former world champion and has 26 World Cup golds to her name, but an Olympic medal is the one that continues to evade her grasp.
Although slower than anticipated in her seeding run, the 30-year-old had qualified fastest from her heat but looked off the pace from the start of her quarter-final, crossing the finish line last.
It was the same story four years ago in Beijing when Bankes exited at the same stage, a crash to blame on that occasion.
Asked by BBC Sport how she was feeling, Bankes replied: “Lost.
“I feel like I’ve done exactly the same as four years ago, which is very frustrating.
“We’ve worked incredibly hard to improve from that and I feel it hasn’t made any difference today.
“I’ve been struggling with the track all week, but we thought we’d found solutions.
“I really wanted this one.”
Bankes’ preparations for these Games had not been ideal.
In April last year she broke her collarbone, an injury she needed further surgery – including a bone graft from her hip – on in the summer after it was found not to be healing correctly.
But she came into the Games back to full fitness and had won a gold medal at a World Cup in China just last month.
“It’s a tough one to swallow. I was hoping to put on a better show, but it didn’t work out today,” she added.
“It can be a cruel sport. The team did all the work behind me and I didn’t pull it off.”
Australia’s Josie Baff won gold, with Czech Eva Adamczykova taking silver and Italian home favourite and former champion Michela Moioli the bronze.
Bankes has just 48 hours to brush off her disappointment before she returns to the start gate alongside team-mate Huw Nightingale in the mixed team event.
Bankes and Nightingale were crowned world champions in 2023.
The Livigno Snow Park has not been a happy hunting ground so far for Team GB at the Milan-Cortina Games, and the wait goes on for a first Olympic gold or silver medal on snow.
Two fourth-place finishes for freestyle skier Kirsty Muir and snowboarder Mia Brookes came earlier in the week, but both will return to action in the coming days, as will Zoe Atkin, the current halfpipe world champion.
