Winter sports news - Zoe Atkin: British freestyle skier picks up bronze at the World Championships
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ByEurosport
Updated 13/03/2021 at 11:30 GMT
Zoe Atkin's impressive performance in Aspen on Friday will give Team GB a boost of confidence heading into the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. Zoe's older sister Izzy Atkin, who won Great Britain's first ever Olympic skiing medal in 2018, failed to make the women's final on her return from concussion suffered at the X Games when she picked up silver back in January.
‘What a performance!’ – Zoe Atkin seals halfpipe bronze in Aspen
British freestyle skier Zoe Atkin has won the halfpipe bronze in Aspen, Colorado.
The 18-year-old, who is the younger sister to Olympic slopestyle bronze medallist Lizzy, recorded her best score of 90.5 in her third and final run to win a first medal of her senior career.
The X Games title went to China's Gu Ailing with a score of 93 for her third title. Lead qualifier Rachael Karker took home silver – denying Atkin second step on the podium in the process – with a score of 91.74 from her final attempt.
"I definitely was really struggling on qualifier day and during training and that shook up my confidence a little," Gu, who had qualified seventh earlier in the week, told FIS.
"But dropping in for the final I was really feeling it, and Aspen Snowmass is always so amazing."
The medal marks China’s first of the Freestyle Ski and Snowboarding World Championships, which are being held in four different locations across the world.
Atkin is the first British medallist at the 2021 World Championships with former X Games champion James Woods and Youth Olympic silver medallist Kirsty Muir to compete on Saturday.
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