Mia Brookes narrowly misses medal after bold trick in Olympic snowboard final

Mia Brookes had no regrets about trying an historic trick that cost her an Olympic medal after finishing fourth in the women’s snowboard slopestyle final at the Livigno Snow Park.

Starting her final run in third place, Brookes went for a backside 1620 – a trick she had never previously attempted on snow – in a last-gasp bid to force her way to the top of the podium.

Despite completing the required four and a half rotations, Brookes was penalised for landing awkwardly and dropped down the standings to finish fourth behind gold medallist Kokomo Murase of Japan.

The 19-year-old said: “I could have done a 14 and maybe got third, but I could have done a 16 and landed it and won.

“It’s a really special trick and, for women’s snowboarding, if I’d landed that it would have been insane.

“I wasn’t planning on it and I didn’t want to do it at all. But I think sometimes you’ve got to just grit your teeth and get it done. I’m just stoked I tried it and I’m not lying in a hospital bed.”

Brookes, an avowed heavy metal fan who blasts the music during her runs, joked: “I thought I got it, but I gave it too much power. I was listening to my music too loud!”

Murase, the only female snowboard athlete who has landed the backside 16 in competition, edged above Zoe Sadowski Synnott to take the gold medal, with South Korea’s Seungeun Yu holding on to take third.

With the cumulative score of the two best of three runs counting, Brookes scored 80.75 for her first jump, marginally better than her relatively conservative second that still bumped her up the standings.

Ultimately her total of 159.50 was some way down on Yu’s bronze-medal winning score of 171.0, resulting in a disappointing ending for a day that had promised so much for Team GB.

Brookes’ British team-mate Kirsty Muir missed out on a ski slopestyle medal by less than half a point earlier on Monday, while the mixed doubles curling team crashed in a disappointing bronze medal play-off.

And Brookes promised to go for broke once again next Monday, when she enters her favoured slopestyle competition with another chance to become Britain’s youngest Winter Olympic medallist in 78 years.

Brookes will arguably start as favourite in her second event, having won the world title at the age of just 16 in 2023, and also claimed gold at the prestigious X Games in Aspen last month.

“I’m going all out for the slopestyle now – I’ll reckon I’ll probably go for a 16 in slope, but we’ll just see how it goes,” Brookes added. “I think everyone will be just as stoked about me trying a 16 as if I’d got a medal.”