Charlotte Bankes' Olympic Comeback: From Collarbone Surgeries to Snowboard Cross Contention
The year 2025 appeared destined to be Charlotte Bankes' triumphant season. By April, the accomplished snowboarder was dominating the World Cup standings with five impressive victories and had just secured a silver medal at the World Championships, narrowly missing gold due to a dramatic photo finish. She was on course to claim her third Snowboard Cross World Cup title in four years, positioning herself perfectly for her fourth Olympic Games appearance.
Then disaster struck. Bankes suffered a broken collarbone, abruptly turning her Olympic preparations upside down. Initial recovery prospects seemed promising, with the athlete returning to snow in June. However, a subsequent scan revealed the bone had not fully healed, necessitating a second surgical procedure in August that further threatened her Olympic ambitions.
The Road to Recovery
Eight months after her initial injury and slightly ahead of schedule, Bankes made her competitive return in early December at Cervinia, Italy. The 30-year-old experienced a minor tumble during the individual event, exiting in the quarter-finals, but demonstrated remarkable resilience by bouncing back to win gold in the mixed team event alongside 24-year-old teammate Huw Nightingale.
"It was a good way to finish the week, that's for sure," Bankes remarked modestly during an interview. "I didn't have that much expectation. I've done, what, 10 days on track since I've been back and only five where we'd really been able to push on, so we were just taking it day by day."
She continued: "I feel like I'm missing a few kilometres on the board, but luckily when I got back on snow, I was physically strong enough that everything responded quite well. I was a bit in the unknown."
Team Success and Individual Determination
A strong performance by Nightingale positioned the British pair in third place heading into the women's leg of the team event. Despite Bankes' comparative rustiness, confident performances throughout the heats against formidable opponents secured their victory.
"I hadn't done four by four heats much at all because we hadn't had the time," Bankes explained. "So it was just like, how do I react in that pack, can you make the right decision. In that final, it just seemed to all go quite smoothly. Huw put me in the right position and then it was just like, I can't mess it up now!"
The final result left the typically understated athlete "really quite pleasantly surprised" with her performance. "For sure, I'd have preferred to do better [in the individual race], but also I learned a lot from that, it was probably a step that we needed to take," she reflected.
Mental Challenges and Olympic Pressure
The timing of Bankes' injury presented particular psychological challenges, occurring just before an Olympic year and adding significant pressure to her recovery timeline.
"It kind of put a little bit more time pressure on it," Bankes acknowledged. "I probably wouldn't have come back as quickly the first time [without the Olympics looming] – we didn't think it was negative to do that – so the second time we were quite patient."
She described the emotional journey: "At the start, it was just frustration to not be able to defend that position of leading the World Cup and to finish my season like that. But I was kind of like, at least it's only a collarbone and I'll be back soon. It was more [difficult] when it didn't heal and I had to have a second surgery."
The athlete continued: "I was supposed to be going down to South America for training, and it was kind of like, we're going to have to completely change how I approach this season. It's not ideal, but I think that you learn a lot of things as well. In an Olympic season you want to do what you know works. But that doesn't mean that you'll perform on the day, so kind of having to change it around..."
Looking Toward Milan-Cortina
This upcoming Games will mark Bankes' fourth Olympic appearance but her first hosted in Europe. She expressed enthusiasm about competing closer to home, noting that her family plans to attend and that the time zone advantage will allow more supporters to watch the events live.
Bankes cited the 2006 Turin Games as particularly inspirational during her childhood in the French Alps, where she followed her older brothers into snowsports. "I think that being able to do that, inspire the general public and sporting fans into the Winter Olympics, and within that culture of winter sports – Italy is a massive skiing country – I think it will just bring in a lot more people and hopefully it'll be a good show," she said.
The athlete carries unfinished business from the Beijing Games, where she finished ninth and Team GB secured just two medals overall. "I think unfortunately it just didn't click for anybody," Bankes reflected about the previous Olympics. "It didn't really feel like the Games, to be honest: nobody really there to share it with, and that pressure of keeping to yourselves because you were scared of catching Covid and not being able to race."
Refocused Ambitions
While Bankes may not enter the Milan-Cortina Games as the outright favourite she was in Beijing, she remains a serious medal contender in both individual and team events. Her recovery journey has sharpened her focus exclusively on Olympic success.
"This has pretty much refocused me pretty much solely on the Olympics [rather than the World Cup title]," she revealed. "It's every four years, and last time it didn't go well. It kind of just gave me that extra motivation to really put in the work. I'll try to perform at my best and go for a medal, and that's kind of my goal: to be happy with how I'm riding and focus pretty much solely on that, not on the end result, because I know that it'll come from that."
Given her demonstrated resilience and competitive history, few would bet against Charlotte Bankes achieving her Olympic ambitions in what promises to be a remarkable comeback story.
