With six months to go until the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026, Charlotte Bankes is doing all she can in a race to be fit for the women’s snowboard cross event starting 13 February.
“Unfortunately, I had to have a second surgery on the collarbone,” Bankes told Olympics.com in an exclusive interview on Saturday (23 August) at Soft Life Ski, an initiative that aims to increase diversity in winter sport, which has partnered with GB Snowsport.
The Briton suffered the initial injury, a broken collarbone, in training in April just as a third snowboard cross World Cup title in four years was within reach.
“The operation went well, and I’ve started rehab again so I’m back in Bisham at our intensive rehab centre there working hard with the guys and it’s going well,” said Bankes of the treatment she’s receiving at the UK Sports Institute at Bisham Abbey.
“We just need to let the bone heal and we’re going to put the work in physically so that when I’m ready to get back on snow, and the bone is ready to get back up on snow, I’ll be ready to have fun out there.”
Enjoying her sport is the main reason for her longevity.
The 30-year-old has competed in three Winter Olympics to date, two representing France, a country she moved to with her family at four years old, and the most recent, at Beijing 2022, representing her birth nation of Great Britain.
None has yielded an Olympic medal as yet, with a best-place finish of sixth in the mixed team snowboard cross event in People’s Republic of China alongside Huw Nightingale.
However, the pair are the 2023 world champions in the discipline, which made its Olympic debut last time out, and with an individual world title from 2021, Milano Cortina 2026 is very much the aim.
“Oh totally, that’s the goal,” said Bankes, “and that’s also why I had surgery, to be sure to be at Milan because I didn’t want to take the risk of it failing in the lead-up.”
Despite the disappointment of her all-important Olympic season not panning out as planned, Bankes is making good use of her time in between rehab sessions, attending an event that encourages diversity and inclusion in winter sport.