Personal information | |||||||||||||||
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Nationality | British | ||||||||||||||
Born | Bradford, England [1] | 25 August 1997||||||||||||||
Sport | |||||||||||||||
Country | Great Britain | ||||||||||||||
Sport | Snowboarding | ||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Katie Ormerod (born 25 August 1997) is a British snowboarder who was selected to participate in the 2018 Winter Olympics [2] [3] [4] [5] and 2022 Winter Olympics. [6] She is from Brighouse, West Yorkshire. [3]
Ormerod narrowly missed qualifying for the 2014 Winter Olympics when she was 16. [5] In November 2016, she was placed third at the Big Air World Cup in Pyeongchang, a test event for the venue of the 2018 Winter Olympics. In January 2017, she won the Big Air World Cup event in Moscow and a bronze medal in the Women's Slopestyle at the Winter X Games XXI in Aspen. [5] [7]
In May 2014, then aged 16, Ormerod became the first female snowboarder to land a double cork 1080, one of the most complex manoeuvres in snowboarding, which involves three rotations and two inverted flips. [8] [9] [10]
In the 2018 Winter Olympics, she was due to compete in the slopestyle and big air snowboarding events. [4] She was described as "arguably Britain's best medal chance for Pyeongchang 2018", [5] but was forced to withdraw from the Games after breaking her heel in two places in training. She had previously broken her wrist but was determined to compete. [11]
In March 2020, the then 22-year-old won the overall Snowboard Slopestyle World Cup, becoming the first British woman to win a Crystal Globe.
In the 2022 Winter Olympics, she has been selected to compete in the women's slopestyle and big air snowboarding events. [6]
Katie Ormerod started snowboarding aged 5 when she went to Halifax Ski & Snowboard Centre with her family, who were all keen snowboarders. [12] Speaking of her early years snowboarding, Ormerod noted "I kept snowboarding there every week, and then started going to the local snowdome. The whole time, I was balancing snowboarding with gymnastics as well, which really helped.". [12] In 2020 she began to study for a BSc in Sport Coaching and Development at Manchester Metropolitan University under the university's elite sports scholarship scheme. [13]
Her cousin is Jamie Nicholls who represented Great Britain at the 2014 Winter Olympics. [14]