Snowboarder Mia Brookes, 16, makes GB history with slopestyle world title
A 16-year-old British snowboarder, who was too young to compete at the Winter Olympics last year, has made history by winning her country’s first snowboard slopestyle world title with an extraordinary display of trickery and poise.
Mia Brookes, who learned to snowboard at 18 months while travelling around Europe in her family’s motorhome, earned victory in style as she became the first woman to perform a CAB 1440 double grab in competition on her winning run.
The extraordinarily difficult trick, which involves taking off backwards before making four rotations in the air while also grabbing the board twice, helped her to score 91.38 in her second run in Bakuriani, Georgia.
That put her ahead of the reigning Olympic champion, Zoi Sadowski-Synnott, who took silver with her first run total of 88.78, while Onitsuka Miyabi of Japan completed the podium in third with 83.05.
“I feel like I could cry, I’ve never been so happy in my life,” Brookes said afterwards. “My coach said: ‘If you want to win, try the 14.’ I knew it was possible.”
Brookes, who was born in Sandbach in Cheshire, has long been regarded as one of Britain’s most exciting winter sports prospects having been selected to join Team GB’s development squad when she was 10.
She served notice of her talent on her senior debut in December 2020, when she placed second in the Europa Cup slopestyle in Corvatsch. However the Beijing Games came too soon for Brookes as she was not old enough to be allowed to compete.
Her victory, on her debut in the world championships, was hailed by the GB snowsport head coach, Pat Sharples, who said: “What Mia’s done out here today is just next level.
“We all know Mia’s got the talent, but this is her first season on the WC circuit and her first world championships so to land a run like that with all the pressure of a world championships tells you everything you need to know about her.
“We’re all so stoked for Mia, her coaches Mikey and Ben, her parents Vicky and Nige, and the whole team around her.”