Charlotte Bankes

Charlotte Anne Bankes
Personal information
NationalityBritish
Born (1995-06-10) 10 June 1995[1]
Hemel Hempstead, England
Height163 cm (5 ft 4 in)
Weight60 kg (132 lb)
Sport
CountryGreat Britain
SportSnowboarding
Event
Snowboard cross
Medal record
Women's snowboarding
Representing  Great Britain
Olympic Games
2026 Milano Cortina Mixed team snowboard cross
World Championships
2021 Idre Snowboard cross
2023 Bakuriani Mixed team snowboard cross
2019 Utah Snowboard cross
2025 Engadin Snowboard cross
Representing  France
World Championships
2017 Sierra Nevada Team snowboard cross

Charlotte Anne Bankes (born 10 June 1995) is an English snowboarder who competes in the snowboard cross. In 2021, she became the first ever Briton to win at the FIS Snowboard World Championships. She is also a two-time overall World Cup champion. In the 2026 Winter Olympics, she won a gold medal in the mixed team event with Huw Nightingale.

Born in England, Bankes moved with her family to France at the age of four. She began competing internationally for France at the age of 15, and represented them at both the 2014 and 2018 Winter Olympics. In search of a fresh start following a serious injury and a seventh-place finish at the 2018 Games, Bankes switched allegiance to Great Britain. She won a silver medal in the 2019 World Championships, before becoming the snowboard cross world champion for the first time in 2021. She won back-to-back World Cup titles in 2021–22 and 2022–23 and became a world champion with Huw Nightingale in the mixed team event at the 2023 World Championships. At the 2026 Winter Olympics, Bankes and Nightingale won gold in the mixed team snowboard cross, the first ever Olympic gold medal won by Great Britain in a snow sport.

Career

Early life and competing for France

Charlotte Bankes was born on 10 June 1995 in Hemel Hempstead, England.[1] She moved with her family to Puy-Saint-Vincent, France in the southern Alps in 1999 when she was four years old.[2] Her father was a lawyer, and her mother a biochemist, and the family wanted to leave suburban living.[3] She had already started skiing by this time, having first tried it at age two, but took up snowboarding after watching her brothers William and Thomas, who also went on to compete at international level. While growing up, she had the opportunity to train on the slopes most days. Bankes started competing internationally for France in 2010 at the age of 15. The following year, she sustained a pelvis fracture in a crash, which left her in "constant pain" and unable to train at full intensity for several years.[2]

Bankes made her debut in the FIS Snowboard World Cup a few months before representing France at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.[2] At the Games, she finished in 17th position.[4] She won a gold medal at the 2014–15 World Cup race in La Molina.[5] In the 2016–17 World Cup, she triumphed at the race in Veysonnaz.[6] That season, Bankes and French teammate Manon Petit won silver medals in both the World Cup women's team race in Montafon[7] and the women's team event at the 2017 World Championships.[8] She competed at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, where she finished seventh.[2] In the 2017–18 World Cup, Bankes won a gold medal in Bansko,[9] as well as a silver medal in Feldberg[10] and a bronze medal in La Molina.[11]

After the 2018 Games, Bankes switched from representing France to competing for Great Britain, partly due to frustration from her struggles to fully recover from her pelvic injury. Explaining her switch, Bankes stated she believed that she could no longer continue with the French team, and it was a case of "either switch or stop snowboarding." She also explained that although she had been "part of the team", she felt she had been competing for herself and her home region rather than for France. She spoke to GB Snowsport who helped convince her to switch as she was impressed with the strategy that they had set out for her. She then spent the summer undergoing extensive injury rehabilitation in London.[2]

Competing for Great Britain: 2018-present

In December 2018, Bankes won her first competition for Great Britain in a Europa Cup event in Austria.[12] Later that month, she achieved her first World Cup podium finish for Great Britain at a race in Breuil-Cervinia, part of the 2018-19 series, where she narrowly finished ahead of her former French team-mate Nelly Moenne-Loccoz to secure third place.[13] In January 2019, Bankes stated that she was able to train fully again following her previous pelvic injury.[2] The following month, she participated at the 2019 World Championships, winning a silver medal behind Czech racer Eva Samková in the snowboard cross. Her medal was the first one ever won by a British snowboarder at a World Championships. Afterwards, she stated: "It's great to be enjoying snowboarding again, to be pain free."[14]

Two years later, she went one better at the 2021 World Championships in Sweden when she secured a gold medal in the snowboard cross.[15] She finished 0.08 seconds ahead of second-placed Michela Moioli of Italy to become a world champion for the first time.[16] Her victory was also the first ever by a British snowboarder at the World Championships.[17] In the 2020–21 World Cup, Bankes triumphed in Bakuriani to claim her first victory in a World Cup race since 2018.[18]

In the 2021–22 World Cup season, Bankes claimed snowboard cross titles in Montafon,[19] Krasnoyarsk (x2),[20] Reiteralm[21] and Veysonnaz. Her victory in Reiteralm gave her an unassailable 113-point advantage in the series, and she won the overall World Cup title and the accompanying Crystal Globe trophy for the first time. After her victory in the series, Bankes said: "The Crystal Globe has always been a dream for me."[22] In the Winter Olympics, she was eliminated from the snowboard cross at the quarter-finals stage. She qualified for the quarter-finals with the second fastest time, but a tactical misjudgment in her next race left her out of position. Bankes expressed that she was in "disbelief" following her exit, called it the "worst race of my season" and admitted she was struggling to explain what had happened.[23] She also competed in the mixed team event with Huw Nightingale, the pairing finished in sixth place.[24]

In the 2022–23 World Cup season, Bankes won six gold medals. She achieved victories at Breuil-Cervinia,[25] Cortina d'Ampezzo,[26] Sierra Nevada (x2),[27] Veysonnaz[28] and Mont-Sainte-Anne. She finished the series as the overall champion and won her second Crystal Globe trophy, 73 points ahead of French runner-up Chloé Trespeuch.[29] At the World Championships, she was unable to retain her individual world title, her defence ending as a result of a collision in the first heat.[30] In the mixed team race, Bankes and Huw Nightingale won Great Britain's first ever world title in the event. The duo ended 0.88 seconds ahead of the Austrian pairing who finished with the silver medal.[31]

Bankes again partnered with Nightingale to secure Great Britain's first ever mixed team World Cup triumph after securing victory in Les Deux Alpes.[32] Bankes finished in overall second position for the individual snowboard cross in the 2023–24 World Cup.[33] The beginning of her campaign was disrupted by crashes but she went on to win five races across the series, starting in Gudauri,[34] then in Sierra Nevada,[35] Cortina d'Ampezzo[36] and back-to-back events in Mont-Sainte-Anne. She finished the competition 35 points behind Trespeuch, unable to recover the potential points that she lost from her slow start in the series.[33]

In the 2024–25 World Cup, Bankes won five gold medals in the snowboard cross. She achieved back-to-back victories in Beidahu,[37][38] as well as securing wins in Cortina,[39] Erzurum[40] and Gudauri. With three races in the World Cup remaining, she held a 57-point lead in the overall standings.[41] She then raced in the World Championships and finished with a silver medal in the individual competition,[42] but her season was cut short the following month after she broke her collarbone in training. Her injury consequently left her unable to compete in the two final World Cup races of the season at Mont-Sainte-Anne and Léa Casta of France went on to win the Crystal Globe trophy. Bankes posted on Instagram: "Gutted and frustrated to finish the season like this."[43]

Bankes underwent two surgeries following her collarbone injury.[44] In December 2025, she returned to competition in the World Cup, suffering a quarter-finals exit in the competition in Breuil-Cervinia,[45] before winning a gold medal alongside Nightingale in the mixed team event.[46] The following month, she won a further gold medal at the World Cup event in Dongbeiya.[47] Competing at her fourth Olympics, Bankes was eliminated at the quarter-finals stage of the women's snowboard cross at Livigno Snow Park in Italy. A frustrated Bankes said she had found the track difficult all week.[48]

Bankes then teamed up with Nightingale for the mixed team competition, with the duo winning all three of their races on the way to the gold medal. In the final, Nightingale finished his part of the race in second position, 0.14 seconds behind the French leader. In the women's race that immediately followed, Bankes successfully made up the deficit and overtook Casta, finishing 0.43 seconds ahead of her rival. Their victory was the first ever gold medal for Great Britain in a snow sport. Afterwards, Bankes called their victory a 'relief' and said she hoped that the gold medal would allow her to race with "less weight on [her] shoulders".[49][50] Along with skeleton racer Matt Weston, Bankes was named as the flagbearer for Great Britain at the Games' closing ceremony.[51]

In March, Bankes returned to the World Cup circuit with a quarter-finals exit in Erzurum before winning a second race at the venue two days later.[52] Later that month, a third-place finish in Montafon coupled with a seventh-place finish for Casta moved Bankes to the top of the overall standings with one race remaining.[53]

Career results

Olympic medals

Year Event Teammate Location Position Ref
2026 Mixed team snowboard cross Huw Nightingale Livigno 1st [49]

World Championship medals

Year Event Location Position Ref
2017 Team snowboard cross Sierra Nevada 2nd [8]
2019 Snowboard cross Solitude Mountain 2nd [14]
2021 Snowboard cross Idre 1st [16]
2023 Mixed team snowboard cross Bakuriani 1st [31]
2025 Snowboard cross Engadin 2nd [42]

World Cup medals (women's snowboard cross)

Competition Location Position Ref
Representing  France
2014–15 La Molina 1st [5]
2016–17 Veysonnaz 1st [6]
2017–18 Bansko 1st [9]
Feldberg 2nd [10]
La Molina 3rd [11]
Representing  Great Britain
2018–19 Breuil-Cervinia 3rd [13]
2020–21 Bakuriani 1st [18]
Veysonnaz 3rd [54]
2021–22 Secret Garden 2nd [55]
Montafon 1st [19]
Krasnoyarsk 1st [20]
Krasnoyarsk 1st [20]
Cortina d'Ampezzo 3rd [56]
Reiteralm 1st [21]
Veysonnaz 1st [22]
2022–23 Breuil-Cervinia 3rd [57]
Breuil-Cervinia 1st [25]
Cortina d'Ampezzo 1st [26]
Sierra Nevada 1st [27]
Sierra Nevada 1st [27]
Veysonnaz 1st [28]
Mont-Sainte-Anne 1st [29]
2023–24 Gudauri 1st [34]
Sierra Nevada 1st [35]
Sierra Nevada 3rd [58]
Cortina d'Ampezzo 1st [36]
Montafon 2nd [59]
Mont-Sainte-Anne 1st [33]
Mont-Sainte-Anne 1st [33]
2024–25 Beidahu 1st [37]
Beidahu 1st [38]
Cortina d'Ampezzo 1st [39]
Erzurum 1st [40]
Gudauri 1st [41]
Montafon 3rd [60]
2025–26 Dongbeiya 1st [47]
Dongbeiya 3rd [47]
Erzurum 1st [52]
Montafon 3rd [53]

References

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