What could have been a magic Monday for Team GB ended rather muted.
It started with an agonising fourth-place finish for skier Kirsty Muir in the slopestyle final, and finished the same for Mia Brookes in the big air – sandwiching a missed opportunity for a guaranteed curling medal for Bruce Mouat and Jen Dodds in the mixed doubles.
But it was so close for glory for snowboarder Brookes, an attempted Cab 1620 trick – featuring four and a half rotations – landed before she over-rotated and her heel edge caught in the snow.
“That was a gold,” said Ed Leigh on BBC Sport commentary.
“She so nearly held on to it. It would have been a world first in competition.”
Instead, the 19-year-old finishes just off the podium with a combined score of 159.50 from her opening two runs.
Japan’s world champion Kokomo Murase won her maiden Olympic gold with 179 points, with New Zealand’s Zoi Sadowski Synnott and South Korean Yu Seungeun taking silver and bronze.
“It was insane. Obviously I’m bummed I couldn’t land that last trick,” Brookes told BBC Sport.
“I had too much spin on it, which I didn’t think I would. Maybe I should have done an 1800 instead!”
Brookes is one of the biggest names in her sport and, despite her tender age, already has a medal collection that most would be jealous of.
In 2023, she became the sport’s youngest senior world champion with slopestyle gold in Georgia, a victory sealed by landing the first Cab 1440 double grab in a women’s event.
She has since become a two-time gold medallist at the X Games, an invitation-only event widely seen as the holy grail of action sports.
There are few athletes – if any – among Team GB’s ranks who have cut a more chilled out figure than Brookes at these Games so far.
An Olympic medal is not something she has ever “craved”, but the magnitude of this global event has perhaps hit home and she is “pretty excited” for another shot at a medal in the slopestyle, which starts with qualifying on 16 February.
“I’m hyped for it, everything good can come from it. I’m in a good headspace and ready to to do slopestyle.”
