Isabel Atkin (born 21 June 1998) is a British-American

freestyle skier Freestyle skiing is a skiing discipline comprising aerials, moguls, cross, half-pipe, slopestyle and big air as part of the Winter Olympics. It can consist of a skier performing aerial flips and spins and can include skiers sliding rails and ...

who competes internationally for Great Britain. She won bronze in women's slopestyle at the

2018 Winter Olympics , nations = 93 , athletes = 2,922 (1,680 men and 1,242 women) , events = 102 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , opening = , closing = , opened_by = President Moon Jae-in , cauldron = Kim Yun-a , stadium = Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium , winte ...

Pyeongchang Pyeongchang (; in full, ''Pyeongchang-gun'' ; ) is a county in the province of Gangwon-do, South Korea, located in the Taebaek Mountains region. It is home to several Buddhist temples, including Woljeongsa. It is about east southeast of Seou ...

, the first British Olympic medal in skiing.

Early life

Atkin was born in Boston, United States to English father Mike and Malaysian mother Winnie. She has a younger sister

Zoe Atkin Zoe Atkin (born 16 January 2003) is a British-American freestyle skier. Career She competed in the halfpipe event at the FIS Freestyle Ski and Snowboarding World Championships 2021 winning a bronze medal. During the 2022-2023 competition season, ...

who is also a freestyle skier. She started learning to ski on Sugarloaf Mountain in

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...

when she was three. In order to help with her skiing, her family moved to

Park City, Utah Park City is a city in Utah, United States. The vast majority is in Summit County, and it extends into Wasatch County. It is considered to be part of the Wasatch Back. The city is southeast of downtown Salt Lake City and from Salt Lake City' ...

when she was 14 to attend the Winter Sports School whose academic calendar runs from April to November so that she may ski in the winter. She enrolled at Colorado College in 2017, graduating in 2022.

Skiing career

Atkin has dual British and US nationality, but joined the GB Park & Pipe programme, and started competing for

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

when she was 15 during the 2013–2014 season. In 2017, she competed in the ski

slopestyle Slopestyle is a winter sport in which athletes ski or snowboard down a course including a variety of obstacles including rails, jumps and other terrain park features. Points are scored for amplitude, originality and quality of tricks. The disci ...

World Cup competition at Silvaplana, and became the first British woman to win a World Cup event in ski slopestyle. She competed at the

FIS Freestyle Ski and Snowboarding World Championships 2017 The 2017 FIS Freestyle Ski and Snowboarding World Championships were held in Sierra Nevada, Spain, from March 6–19, 2017. Snowboard cross team events for men and women were introduced to the championships schedule for the first time, bringin ...

Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada () is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primarily ...

, Spain, where she won bronze in slopestyle. In January 2018, she won bronze at the ski slopestyle World Cup held in

Aspen Snowmass Aspen is a common name for certain tree species; some, but not all, are classified by botanists in the section ''Populus'', of the ''Populus'' genus. Species These species are called aspens: *''Populus adenopoda'' – Chinese aspen (China ...

, Colorado.

2018 Winter Olympics

At the

2018 Winter Olympic Games , nations = 93 , athletes = 2,922 (1,680 men and 1,242 women) , events = 102 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , opening = , closing = , opened_by = President Moon Jae-in , cauldron = Kim Yun-a , stadium = Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium , winte ...

, South Korea, she scored 84.60 points in her final run to win the bronze medal in

. Her win is considered

's first medal won by a skier at the Olympics – the previous British skier

Alain Baxter Alain Baxter (born 26 December 1973) is a Scottish former alpine skier who was formerly a professional specialising in the slalom discipline. He is best known for failing a drug test after finishing third in the men's slalom of the 2002 Winter ...

was stripped of his bronze medal in the

slalom To slalom is to zigzag between obstacles. It may refer to: Sports ;Alpine skiing and/or snowboarding * Slalom skiing, an alpine skiing and alpine snowboarding discipline * Giant slalom, an alpine skiing and alpine snowboarding discipline * Super-G ...

at the

2002 Winter Olympics The 2002 Winter Olympics, officially the XIX Olympic Winter Games and commonly known as Salt Lake 2002 ( arp, Niico'ooowu' 2002; Gosiute Shoshoni: ''Tit'-so-pi 2002''; nv, Sooléí 2002; Shoshoni: ''Soónkahni 2002''), was an internation ...

after testing positive in a drug test.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Atkin, Isabel 1998 births Living people British female freestyle skiers Freestyle skiers at the 2018 Winter Olympics Olympic freestyle skiers of Great Britain Medalists at the 2018 Winter Olympics Olympic bronze medallists for Great Britain Olympic medalists in freestyle skiing Sportspeople from Boston British people of Malaysian descent American people of English descent American people of Malaysian descent American emigrants to the United Kingdom