Competing for France
Charlotte Bankes was born on 10 June 1995 in Hemel Hempstead, England. [1] She moved with her family to Puy-Saint-Vincent, France in the southern Alps in 1999 when she was four years old. She had already started skiing by this time, having first tried it at age two, but took up snowboarding after watching her brothers William and Thomas, who also went on to compete at international level. While growing up, she had the opportunity to train on the slopes most days. Bankes started competing internationally for France in 2010 at the age of 15. The following year, she sustained a pelvis fracture in a crash, which left her in "constant pain" and unable to train at full intensity for several years. [2]
Bankes made her debut in the FIS Snowboard World Cup a few months before representing France at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. [2] At the Games, she finished in 17th position. [3] She won a gold medal at the 2014–15 World Cup race in La Molina. [4] In the 2016–17 World Cup, she triumphed at the race in Veysonnaz. [5] That season, Bankes and French teammate Manon Petit won silver medals in both the World Cup women's team race in Montafon [6] and the women's team event at the 2017 World Championships. [7] She competed at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, where she finished seventh. [2] In the 2017–18 World Cup, Bankes won a gold medal in Bansko, [8] as well as a silver medal in Feldberg [9] and a bronze medal in La Molina. [10]
After the 2018 Games, Bankes switched from representing France to competing for Great Britain, partly due to frustration from her struggles to fully recover from her pelvic injury. Explaining her switch, Bankes stated she believed that she could no longer continue with the French team, and it was a case of "either switch or stop snowboarding." She also explained that although she had been "part of the team", she felt she had been competing for herself and her home region rather than for France. She spoke to GB Snowsport who helped convince her to switch as she was impressed with the strategy that they had set out for her. She then spent the summer undergoing extensive injury rehabilitation in London. [2]
Competing for Great Britain: 2018-present
In December 2018, Bankes won her first competition for Great Britain in a Europa Cup event in Austria. [11] Later that month, she achieved her first World Cup podium finish for Great Britain at a race in Breuil-Cervinia, part of the 2018-19 series, where she narrowly finished ahead of her former French team-mate Nelly Moenne-Loccoz to secure third place. [12] In January 2019, Bankes stated that she was able to train fully again following her previous pelvic injury. [2] The following month, she participated at the 2019 World Championships, winning a silver medal behind Czech racer Eva Samková in the snowboard cross. Her medal was the first one ever won by a British snowboarder at a World Championships. Afterwards, she stated: "It's great to be enjoying snowboarding again, to be pain free." [13]
Two years later, she went one better at the 2021 World Championships in Sweden when she secured a gold medal in the snowboard cross. [14] She finished 0.08 seconds ahead of second-placed Michela Moioli of Italy to become a world champion for the first time. [15] Her victory was also the first ever by a British snowboarder at the World Championships. [16] In the 2020–21 World Cup, Bankes triumphed in Bakuriani to claim her first victory in a World Cup race since 2018. [17]
In the 2021–22 World Cup season, Bankes claimed snowboard cross titles in Montafon, [18] Krasnoyarsk (x2), [19] Reiteralm [20] and Veysonnaz. Her victory in Reiteralm gave her an unassailable 113-point advantage in the series, and she won the overall World Cup title and the accompanying Crystal Globe trophy for the first time. After her victory in the series, Bankes said: "The Crystal Globe has always been a dream for me." [21] In the Winter Olympics, she was eliminated from the snowboard cross at the quarter-finals stage. She qualified for the quarter-finals with the second fastest time, but a tactical misjudgment in her next race left her out of position. Bankes expressed that she was in "disbelief" following her exit, called it the "worst race of my season" and admitted she was struggling to explain what had happened. [22]
In the 2022–23 World Cup season, Bankes won six gold medals. She achieved victories at Breuil-Cervinia, [23] Cortina d'Ampezzo, [24] Sierra Nevada (x2), [25] Veysonnaz [26] and Mont-Sainte-Anne. She finished the series as the overall champion and won her second Crystal Globe trophy, 73 points ahead of French runner-up Chloé Trespeuch. [27] At the World Championships, she was unable to retain her individual world title, her defence ending as a result of a collision in the first heat. [28] In the mixed team race, Bankes and Huw Nightingale won Great Britain's first ever world title in the event. The duo ended 0.88 seconds ahead of the Austrian pairing who finished with the silver medal. [29]
Bankes again partnered with Nightingale to secure Great Britain's first ever mixed team World Cup triumph after securing victory in Les Deux Alpes. [30] Bankes finished in overall second position for the individual snowboard cross in the 2023–24 World Cup. [31] The beginning of her campaign was disrupted by crashes but she went on to win five races across the series, starting in Gudauri, [32] then in Sierra Nevada, [33] Cortina d'Ampezzo [34] and back-to-back events in Mont-Sainte-Anne. She finished the competition 35 points behind Trespeuch, unable to recover the potential points that she lost from her slow start in the series. [31]
In the 2024–25 World Cup, Bankes won five gold medals in the snowboard cross. She achieved back-to-back victories in Beidahu, [35] [36] as well as securing wins in Cortina, [37] Erzurum [38] and Gudauri. With three races in the World Cup remaining, she held a 57-point lead in the overall standings. [39] She then raced in the World Championships and finished with a silver medal in the individual competition, [40] but her season was cut short the following month after she broke her collarbone in training. Her injury consequently left her unable to compete in the two final World Cup races of the season at Mont-Sainte-Anne and Léa Casta of France went on to win the Crystal Globe trophy. Bankes posted on Instagram: "Gutted and frustrated to finish the season like this." [41]
Bankes underwent two surgeries following her collarbone injury, [42] and in December 2025, she won a gold medal alongside Nightingale in the mixed team event at the World Cup race in Breuil-Cervinia. [43] The following month, she won a further gold medal at the World Cup event in Dongbeiya. [44]
