Ryding & Brookes in 20-strong GB snow squad for Winter Olympics

In a 20-strong Team GB snowsport squad for the upcoming Winter Olympics, former British ski great Dave Ryding and former World Champion gold medalists Zoe Atkin, Mia Brookes, and Charlotte Bankes have been named.

Ryding, a former Alpine skier, has already announced that he will retire at the end of the season and will compete in his fifth and final Olympics in Milan-Cortina.

Brookes, who will make her long-awaited Olympic debut, won snowboarding’s youngest world title as a 16-year-old with her 2023 gold medal, making her current freestyle skiing halfpipe world champion.

The 2021 snowboard cross world champion, Bankes, will compete in her fourth Olympics, competing alongside Huw Nightingale, who won the mixed team world title in 2023, in both individual and team competitions.

For the first time in my Olympic career, I’m looking forward to performing on the biggest stage in front of a crowd in central Europe, and I’m excited to get out there and take to the action, said 39-year-old Ryding, who will be joined by Billy Major and Laurie Taylor in the slalom contest.

Kirsty Muir, a multiple world champion, competes in the freestyle skiing, slopestyle, and big air alongside Chris McCormick for the second time since she was the team’s youngest athlete four years ago in Beijing.

Gus Kenworthy, a freestyle skier who retired after the 2022 Olympics but returned to training last year, competes in the halfpipe alongside Liam Richards, Maisie Hill and Txema Mazet-Brown, Txema Mazet-Brown, and Txema Mazet-Brown in the snowboard slopestyle and big air competition.

Andrew Musgrave will compete in the cross-country at his fifth Olympics like Ryding. Along with debutants Joe Davies and Anna Pryce, James Clugnet, and Beijing 2022 veteran James Clugnet, he is chosen.

The ski cross will feature Schofield, Makayla Gerken and Mateo Jeannesson, while Team GB’s sole representative is Ollie Davies.

The skiers and snowboarders have shown they can combine it with the best in the world over the past four years, and the team that is participating in these Games is a true reflection of that talent, grit, and determination to succeed, according to Vicky Gosling, GB Snowsport’s chief executive.

At the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics in May, Team GB is expected to win four to eight medals, according to UK Sport.

Five medals are the nation’s best winter games medal haul, which was achieved at Sochi 2014 and was matched at Pyeongchang four years later. However, Team GB returned from Beijing in 2022 with just two medals.

Park & Pipe

Freeski halfpiper Zoe Atkin

Freeski halfpiper Gus Kenworthy

Freeski halfpipe player Liam Richards

Chris McCormick (big air, freestyle skiing)

(Big Air and Freeski Style) Kirsty Muir

Mia Brookes (freestyle snowboarder, big air)

Maisie Hill (snowboarding, big air, and freestyle snowboarding)

Txema Mazet-Brown (freestyle snowboard slopestyle and big air)

Alpine skiing

Billy Major (slalom)

Dave Ryding (slalom)

Laurie Taylor (slalom)

Cross-Country

James Clugnet

Joe Davies

Andrew Musgrave

Anna Pryce

cross-country skiing

Charlotte Bankes (as a person and as a team)

Individual and collective Huw Nightingale

Ski cross

Ollie Davies

Moguls

Schofield, Makayla Gerken