Izzy Atkin admitted she surprised even herself after claiming bronze in the Big Air final at the Freestyle Skiing and Snowboard World Championships.
The 20-year-old was not expecting to finish on the podium in Park City, Utah, in her first major Big Air competition in almost two years.
Atkin, who won Britain’s first Olympic medal on skis with slopestyle bronze at PyeongChang 2018, said: “I’m really happy with the way I skied. “I wasn’t expecting to be on the podium so this feels amazing. Thank you so much to everyone for all the support.”
Atkin finished with a score of 168.75, as she came in 16 points behind gold medallist Tess Ledeux, of France, and five points off second-placed Julia Crass, from America. It meant she edged out the 2018 Olympic slopestyle gold medallist Sarah Hoefflin, from Switzerland, by a single point. Atkin had been fourth after the first run but moved up the rankings thanks to scores of 81.5 and 87.25, as she secured a podium spot. Her medal was Great Britain’s second of the World Championships following Charlotte Bankes’ snowboard cross silver medal on Friday. Earlier in the day, James Woods was unable to reproduce the form which took him to the X-Games Big Air podium last week, missing out on qualifying for the final alongside fellow Brit Chris McCormick. Ollie Davies, Emma Peters and Emily Sarsfield were also in action on day three of the World Championships in the knockout stages of ski cross but failed to win past the round of 32. Sportsbeat 2019