Britain’s Olympic champions hope ‘surreal’ triumph can inspire and grow interest in snow sports
Huw Nightingale and Charlotte Bankes made history with their gold medal in the mixed team snowboard cross and believe more success for Team GB is on the horizon
Winning an Olympic gold medal is tough, but the partying afterwards is often even harder.
The toll of emotions, and a late night, weighed on Huw Nightingale and Charlotte Bankes the morning after being crowned Olympic snowboard cross mixed team champions in Livigno.
The victory marked Britain's first ever Olympic gold medal on snow, which meant that the celebrations had to be big to make up for the past 102 years.
In Nightingale's case, they went on all night, not quite making it back to his hotel room but well enough to face the media frenzy that comes with becoming an Olympic champion the following morning.
There were no tales of being pushed back to the Athlete's Village in a shopping trolley, which is what Billy Morgan did after winning snowboard big air bronze in Pyeongchang eight years ago, but stories of sharing memories and tears with family and friends.
And behind the tired eyes sparked pure elation for the duo who both bounced back from individual disappointment earlier in the Games to achieve history.
"I feel rough but it's amazing," said Nightingale. "I don't think I've yet realised that we are Olympic champions, and I think it will settle in in a few days but at the moment it's still a surreal feeling.
"In the last four years, we've had this goal in mind to go to the Olympics and win gold so it was a night where we could relax with our family and have a few drinks. We went out a bit as well.
"It was just a relief to be honest. To have nothing on your mind and to have achieved what you wanted feels like a weight off our chests."
The Livigno Snow Park had not seen a British athlete on the podium until Sunday, with painful near misses for both Mia Brookes and Kirsty Muir.
That meant the pressure was building for Nightingale and Bankes, who hoped to translate their 2023 World Championship gold into the Olympic kind in Italy.
They both fell short in their individual events, with 25-time World Cup winner Bankes suffering the same quarter-final defeat she endured in Beijing four years ago.
But putting their heartbreak behind them, the duo turned individual upset into team success and as the first British snow sport athletes to reach the top step of the podium, they now hope they won't be the last.
"This was always the hoped destination," said Bankes.
"It has not been easy and we saw this week that it can go badly. I had a really bad performance in the individual but we used that strength as a team to bounce back and give everything.
"It is a massive weight sometimes when it doesn't start that well.
"Having Kirsty and Mia come so close, it felt like it needed to go our way and so hopefully there will now be some more medals for Team GB as we have some good chances."
With Muir making her second final of the Games in the freeski big air and freeski halfpipe world champion and X Games winner Zoe Atkin still to come in Livigno, the opportunities keep rolling in.
Bankes was born in Hemel Hempstead and Nightingale in Bolton, and while they now live in the snowy peaks of France and Austria, they hope that their gold can be a beacon for more Brits to pick up a snowboard, or skis.
After all, with a gold on the snow, the rainy land of Britain can officially call itself a true snow sport nation.
"We can be proud of what we have done this Games," said Nightingale. "There is such little base in the UK for snow sports but we want to grow that and inspire a lot of kids at home to do it."
TNT Sports on discovery+ will be the go-to destination in the U.K to watch everything of Milano Cortina 2026 live all in one place, with over 850 hours of action from every sport, venue, and medal event.
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