Charlotte Bankes (born 10 June 1995) is a British-born
snowboarder
Snowboarding is a recreational and competitive activity that involves descending a snow-covered surface while standing on a snowboard that is almost always attached to a rider's feet. It features in the Winter Olympic Games and Winter Paralympic ...
who represented France in international competition before the start of the 2018–2019 season and Great Britain from that point onwards. She competed at the
2022 Winter Olympics, in
Women's snowboard cross.
Career
Bankes and her family moved from
Hemel Hempstead
Hemel Hempstead () is a town in the Dacorum district in Hertfordshire, England, northwest of London, which is part of the Greater London Urban Area. The population at the 2011 census was 97,500.
Developed after the Second World War as a new ...
to
Puy-Saint-Vincent in the southern Alps in 1999. She had already started skiing by this time, having first tried it at age two, but took up snowboarding in the footsteps of her brothers William and Thomas, who have competed in the sport internationally. She started competing internationally for France in 2010. 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.
She made her debut on the
FIS Snowboard World Cup a few months before representing France at the
2014 Winter Olympics in
Sochi, Russia.
She also competed at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, where she finished 7th. After the 2018 Games, she switched from representing France to competing for Great Britain, partly due to struggling to fully recover from her pelvic injury, despite the French Ski Federation paying for surgery and therapy.
She took her first World Cup podium finish for Team GB in a race in
Breuil-Cervinia
Breuil-Cervinia (french: Breuil; it, Cervinia; Valdôtain: ) is a ''frazione'' of the ''comune'' of Valtournenche, and is considered one of the most renowned winter and summer tourist resorts in the Alps.
Etymology
The name of ''Breuil-Cervini ...
in
December 2018, where she pipped her former French team-mate
Nelly Moenne-Loccoz to third place.
She participated at the
FIS Freestyle Ski and Snowboarding World Championships 2019
The 2019 FIS Freestyle Ski and Snowboarding World Championships was held in Utah, in resorts Park City, Deer Valley and Solitude Mountain, from February 1 to 10, 2019.
19-year-old Dmitry Loginov of Russia became the youngest World Champion i ...
, winning a silver medal in the
snowboard cross competition. Two years later, she went one better at the
FIS Freestyle Ski and Snowboarding World Championships 2021
The 2021 FIS Freestyle Ski and Snowboarding World Championships were held in Idre, Rogla, Almaty and Aspen with the ski and snowboard cross events held in Idre from 11 to 13 February 2021, the parallel and giant slalom snowboard in Rogla from ...
, when she won the
snowboard cross competition.
References
External links
*
1995 births
Snowboarders at the 2014 Winter Olympics
Snowboarders at the 2018 Winter Olympics
Snowboarders at the 2022 Winter Olympics
Living people
Olympic snowboarders of France
Olympic snowboarders of Great Britain
French female snowboarders
British female snowboarders
Sportspeople from Hemel Hempstead
Sportspeople from Hautes-Alpes
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