Great Britain have claimed a second gold medal at the 2026 Winter Olympics after Charlotte Bankes and Huw Nightingale won the mixed team snowboard cross event.
Two days after Matt Weston finally got Team GB on the Milan-Cortina medal board with skeleton gold, Nightingale and Bankes delivered their own stunning performance to take top spot at the Livigno Snow Park.
In doing so the pair, world champions in 2023, become Britain’s first Olympic gold-medal winners on snow.
Team GB have also won two gold medals at the same Winter Games for the first time.
After winning both their quarter-final and semi-final, the duo beat Italy to the gold medal by 0.43s in the final with the impressive Bankes moving up to first place mid-way through the decisive female race after Nightingale had finished a close second to France’s Loan Bozzolo in the men’s.
The 30-year-old Bankes had already displayed bold overtaking moves in the previous two rounds before storming past Lea Casta to take over the lead, with the Frenchwoman eventually pipped to the silver medal by Italy’s Michela Moioli.
The winning moment for Charlotte Bankes in the final
Bankes and Nightingale, 24, had been all-but guaranteed a medal heading into the women’s race after Australia’s Adam Lambert had fallen in a tangle with Italian rival Sommariva while battling over third in the men’s race.
The gold medal marked a remarkable revival from the duo who had both exited the heats in disappointing fashion in their respective individual events earlier in the games.
But they went into the team event – in which the women start at intervals determined by the result of the preceding men’s race – not without hope.
Their medal is Britain’s best ever on snow, building on the bronzes previously won by Jenny Jones, Billy Morgan and Izzy Atkin.
‘Unbelievable!’ – Bankes and Nightingale make history
Bankes said: “I’m happy with my riding all day. I found it again, which I’ve been struggling with for the last week here.
“At last I found some speed and made it count. I really used my carving, the drafting, made the right choices and that’s where it pays off.”
Bankes and Huw Nightingale with their gold medals from the mixed team snowboard cross final
Bankes and Nightingale are the fourth British athletes to win Olympic medals on snow, building on the bronze medals previously won by Jenny Jones in 2014, and both Billy Morgan and Izzy Atkin in 2018.
Nightingale admitted he was concerned he might be implicated in Lambert’s fall, but was relieved to see he had not been involved.
He said: “It’s unbelievable. GB on a whole is doing great on the snowboard side. We can thank the National Lottery for that. We want to keep it going and inspire little kids to do it as well, and maybe one day they can get a gold medal.
“I got a bit scared that I had taken Lambert out. I saw on the replay that it wasn’t me. That was a big relief off my chest. Everybody’s on such a high level, and it’s just an enjoyable race to do.”
