Mia Brookes: Britain's teenage snowboard prospect on the 2026 Winter Olympics
- Published
Brookes has won eight Europa Cup events out of 12 she has entered
While young freestyle skier Kirsty Muir was winning the plaudits for her Winter Olympics debut performances, another British teenager was watching the action thousands of miles away.
Mia Brookes is one of the most exciting snowboarding prospects Britain has ever produced but the Beijing Games came too soon for the 15-year-old, who was not old enough to be allowed to compete.
So instead Brookes was marvelling at skiers and snowboarders as they tackled the slopestyle and big air while she was plotting her path to Milan-Cortina in 2026.
Brookes was philosophical about missing Beijing, telling BBC Sport: "I wasn't really too bothered because I knew that I wouldn't have been able to go anyway.
"I'm just really excited now to go and work towards everything for the next four years."
Brookes said the standard of Olympic snowboarding was off the scale with Zoi Sadowski-Synnott claiming gold in slopestyle and Anna Gasser winning the big air.
"It was mental, unbelievable. Zoe was just unreal. They were all riding like the men. It was ridiculous," she said.
Because of her young age, Brookes can currently only compete in Europa Cup events, which is the level down from the top tier World Cups.
Her undoubted talent is underlined by the fact out of the 12 competitions she has entered, she has won eight of them and finished on the podium in all but one.
This week she is in Leysin in Switzerland at the World Junior Snowboard Championships and said: "I've got my eye on gold but we'll see how it goes.
"This group of girls and everyone around my age that is coming through, we're the next group that will probably be going to the Olympics so we are all pushing each other."
Next season Brookes will be old enough to compete in World Cups and a win in either slopestyle or big air in Leysin would guarantee her a spot.
She could also automatically qualify if she wins the Europa Cup overall title. Brookes is currently second in a close fight with Switzerland's Lia-Mara Boesch with two competitions remaining.
Invitations to top freestyle ski and snowboarding events are starting to roll in too.
In April, Brookes and 17-year-old Muir will be the youngest female participants in the Audi Nines in Switzerland alongside Olympic champions and X Games medallists.
It is a spectacular-looking snow playground which organisers describe as a "freestyle progression session where riders push their limits to the max with world's-first tricks and outrageous stunts".
Brookes' mum Vicky said: "She's going to get to meet all these pros and get to know them without it being in a competition so that will be really good for her."
The pandemic lockdown worked to Brookes' advantage as she was going through puberty and growing at the time.
"It gave me a mental break and then a mental boost again," Brookes said as she realised how much she missed being on the slopes.
Brookes is studying for her GCSEs next summer and splits her time between Sandbach in Cheshire and the Swiss Alps in the winter where her family have a motorhome.
Her parents have made sure she has developed her talent naturally with an emphasis on fun.
She can land 1080s but knows she needs to progress even more in the next four years to compete among the very best.
"I definitely need to keep pushing myself but I think what I'm doing at the moment I just need to keep doing it," Brookes said.
"I've got a lot of work to put in but I think it's achievable if you have the right mindset.
"And as long as I keep my love for snowboarding, that's the main thing."