I was in the unknown

GB's Charlotte Bankes has won a race against time to overcome injuries and surgery make it to the Olympics. She tells Flo Clifford about her long road to recovery

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2025 was shaping up to be Charlotte Bankes’ year. By April, the snowboarder was leading the World Cup standings with five wins and had just picked up a silver medal in the World Championships, only pipped to gold by a dramatic photo finish. She was on track for a third Snowboard Cross World Cup title in four years, the ideal preparation for her fourth Olympic Games.

Then she broke her collarbone, and suddenly her Olympic year was flipped upside down.

Her recovery initially looked promising, and she was back on the snow in June, before a scan revealed the bone hadn't completely healed. She underwent a second surgery in August, further jeopardising her hopes of making it back in time for the Games.

Eight months after the crash and slightly ahead of schedule, she returned to competition in Cervinia, Italy, in early December. The 30-year-old crashed in the individual event - “just a little tumble”, fortunately - and exited in the quarterfinals. But she demonstrated not just her resilience but also why she remains one of the sport's top competitors as she bounced back to win gold in the mixed team event, alongside 24-year-old Huw Nightingale.

“It was a good way to finish the week, that’s for sure,” she says modestly, on a call with The Independent. “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.

“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.”