Summerhayes ends World Cup medal drought with slopestyle silver

Just shy of four years is a long time to wait between World Cup medals but Katie Summerhayes' drought is finally over after winning slopestyle silver in Austria.

In taking her place on the second step of the podium, 22-year-old Summerhayes matched her achievement from Gstaad, Switzerland, in January 2014.

Summerhayes, who represented Team GB at the Sochi Olympic Winter Games later that year, earned a score of 77.00 points in Stubai, three adrift of Sweden's Jennie-Lee Burmansson with Caroline Claire of the USA completing the podium.

British teammate Izzy Atkin finished seventh with a score of 56.40 points, while Madi Rowlands missed out on the final.

Summerhayes' medal marks GB Park and Pipe’s third World Cup podium finish of the season, after James Woods' August slopestyle victory in Cardrona and Katie Ormerod's silver in the Milan Big Air earlier this month.

And with the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games rapidly approaching, Summerhayes couldn't have asked for a better time to be hitting the level she knows she's capable of.

"It's been a tough couple of years, but I am so happy to have come back and that my skiing feels the best it has ever felt,” she said.

"I am really happy to be on the podium.

"I can’t thank Pat [Sharples] and everyone at GB Park and Pipe enough for all the support."

Sportsbeat 2017