Isabel Atkin (born 21 June 1998) is a British-American

freestyle skier Freestyle skiing is a skiing discipline comprising aerials, moguls, cross, half-pipe, slopestyle and big air as part of the Winter Olympics. It can consist of a skier performing aerial flips and spins and can include skiers sliding rails and ...

who competes internationally for Great Britain. She won bronze in women's slopestyle at the

2018 Winter Olympics The 2018 Winter Olympics (), officially the XXIII Olympic Winter Games (; ) and also known as PyeongChang 2018 (), were an international winter multi-sport event held between 9 and 25 February 2018 in Pyeongchang County, South Ko ...

Pyeongchang Pyeongchang ( , ; in full, ''Pyeongchang-gun'' ) is a county in the province of Gangwon-do, South Korea, located in the Taebaek Mountains region. It is home to several Buddhist temples, including Woljeongsa. It is about east southeast of Seo ...

, the first British Olympic medal in skiing.

Early life

Atkin was born in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, United States to English father Mike and Malaysian mother Winnie. She has a younger sister Zoe Atkin who is also a freestyle skier. She started learning to ski on

Sugarloaf Mountain Sugarloaf Mountain (, ) is a peak situated in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on a peninsula at the mouth of Guanabara Bay. Rising above the harbor, the peak is named for its resemblance to the traditional shape of concentrated refined loaf suga ...

Maine Maine ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the United States, and the northeasternmost state in the Contiguous United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and ...

when she was three. In order to help with her skiing, her family moved to

Park City, Utah Park City is a city in Utah, United States. Most of the city is within Summit County, Utah, Summit County, with some portions extending into Wasatch County, Utah, Wasatch County. It is considered to be part of the Wasatch Back. The city is sou ...

when she was 14 to attend the Winter Sports School whose academic calendar runs from April to November so that she may ski in the winter. She enrolled at

Colorado College Colorado College is a private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Founded in 1874 by Thomas Nelson Haskell in his daughter's memory, the college offers over 40 majors a ...

in 2017, graduating in 2022.

Career

Atkin has dual British and US nationality, but joined the GB Park & Pipe programme, and started competing for

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

when she was 15 during the 2013–2014 season. In 2017, she competed in the ski

slopestyle Slopestyle is a winter sport in which athletes skiing, ski or snowboard down a course including a variety of obstacles including rails, jumps and other terrain park features. Points are scored for amplitude, originality and quality of tricks. Th ...

World Cup competition at

Silvaplana Silvaplana (Romansh language, Romansh: ) is a municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the Maloja Region in the Switzerland, Swiss Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Graubünden and the name of a lake in the municipality. History The first ...

, and became the first British woman to win a World Cup event in ski slopestyle. She competed at the

FIS Freestyle Ski and Snowboarding World Championships 2017 The 2017 FIS Freestyle Ski and Snowboarding World Championships were held in Sierra Nevada, Spain, from March 6–19, 2017. Snowboard cross team events for men and women were introduced to the championships schedule for the first time, bringing ...

Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada ( ) is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primari ...

, Spain, where she won bronze in slopestyle. At the 2017

Dew Tour The Dew Tour is an extreme sports circuit organized by Coalition 375 LLC, an alliance of elite action sports experts. History The tour was announced in late 2004, and made its debut in Louisville, KY in June 2005. The tour then made stops in ...

in Breckenridge, Colorado, Atkin qualified to the slopestyle final in second place but finished in fifth place in the final. In January 2018, she won bronze at the ski slopestyle World Cup held in Aspen Snowmass, Colorado. At the 2019 World Championships, Atkin took bronze in the big air event, while the slopestyle event was cancelled. Atkin took silver in the slopestyle event at the 2021 Winter X Games despite crashing on her fourth run and being taken to Aspen Valley Hospital. Atkin confirmed she had suffered a concussion from the crash. Atkin also competed in the big air event, finishing in sixth place.

Winter Olympics

At the

2018 Winter Olympic Games The 2018 Winter Olympics (), officially the XXIII Olympic Winter Games (; ) and also known as PyeongChang 2018 (), were an international winter multi-sport event held between 9 and 25 February 2018 in Pyeongchang County, South Ko ...

, South Korea, she scored 84.60 points in her final run to win the bronze medal in

. Her win is considered

's first medal won by a skier at the Olympics – the previous British skier Alain Baxter was stripped of his bronze medal in the slalom at the

2002 Winter Olympics The 2002 Winter Olympics, officially the XIX Olympic Winter Games and commonly known as Salt Lake 2002 (; Gosiute dialect, Gosiute Shoshoni: ''Tit'-so-pi 2002''; ; Shoshoni language, Shoshoni: ''Soónkahni 2002''), were an international wi ...

after testing positive in a drug test. Atkin qualified to the Olympics again in the slopestyle and big air events for the

2022 Winter Olympics The 2022 Winter Olympics, officially called the XXIV Olympic Winter Games () and commonly known as Beijing 2022 (2022), were an international winter multi-sport event held from 4 to 20 February 2022 in Beijing, China, and surrounding areas wit ...

in Beijing. However, Atkin had broken her pelvis seven weeks prior to the start of the games, and despite intending to compete and flying to Beijing, on 30 January 2022 she announced that she would withdraw from the big air event. Atkin mentioned that she returned to skiing six weeks after her injury and hoped to still compete in the slopestyle event later in the week. Despite this, on 11 February 2022, one day before the qualifying event, she announced that she would withdraw from slopestyle as well to allow for rehabilitation from her injury.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Atkin, Isabel 1998 births Living people British female freestyle skiers Freestyle skiers at the 2018 Winter Olympics Olympic freestyle skiers for Great Britain Medalists at the 2018 Winter Olympics Olympic bronze medallists for Great Britain Olympic medalists in freestyle skiing Skiers from Boston English people of Malaysian descent American people of English descent American people of Malaysian descent American emigrants to the United Kingdom