Winter Olympics 2026: Zoe Atkin wins halfpipe bronze for Team GB’s fifth medal

In 2018, as a 15-year-old, Zoe Atkin watched her big sister Izzy win Winter Olympic bronze for Team GB – and a spark was lit.

She wanted her moment on the podium. She wanted to do the same.

That fire burned for eight years until Sunday, when she did.

In winning halfpipe bronze in Livigno, Atkin became only the second British athlete to win an Olympic medal on skis.

Keeping the honour in the family, the first was her sister in the Pyeongchang slopestyle.

“She’s always been my biggest inspiration, she pushed me into the sport, she was always bullying me to jump off things on the mountain,” said 23-year-old Atkin.

“After watching her [win the medal] it’s always been a huge goal for me.

“It’s a real full-circle moment because she was here supporting me, and I was there when she won her bronze medal, so it’s really special.

“Obviously I wanted to one-up her a bit but it’s really special that we both have the bronze.

“My mum is claiming that she’s the first parent to have two Olympic medallists for GB in the family.”

Atkin had already secured a medal when she dropped into the pipe for her final run and, with the pressure off, improved her score to 92.50 – just half a point shy of the silver medal position.

China’s global superstar Eileen Gu won gold, her first of these Games after two silvers, with 94.75, while compatriot Li Fanghui took silver.

Atkin’s medal was the fifth for Great Britain at the Milan-Cortina Games, after three golds and a silver, equalling the team’s record-best haul from 2014 and 2018.

But this was the team’s most successful Winter Olympics the moment Charlotte Bankes and Huw Nightingale secured the second of those golds in the mixed team snowboard cross exactly a week ago.

Never before had Great Britain won more than one gold at a single Winter Games.