Isabel Atkin

Isabel Atkin, or Izzy Atkin (born 21 June 1998[1]), is a British-American freestyle skier who competes internationally for Great Britain.[2] She won bronze at women's slopestyle at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, the first British Olympic medal in skiing.

Isabel Atkin
Personal information
NationalityBritish
Born (1998-06-21) 21 June 1998
Boston, Massachusetts, United States[1]
Height1.71 m (5 ft 7 in)
Weight66 kg (146 lb)
Sport
CountryGreat Britain
SportFreestyle skiing
Event(s)Big air
Medal record
Representing  Great Britain
Women's freestyle skiing
Olympic Games
2018 PyeongchangSlopestyle
World Championships
2017 Sierra NevadaSlopestyle
2019 UtahBig air
Winter X Games
2018 AspenSlopestyle

Early life

Atkin was born in Boston, United States to a British father and a Malaysian mother, Mike and Winnie Atkin. She has a sister Zoe.[3] She started learning to ski on Sugarloaf Mountain in Maine when she was three.[4] In order to help with her skiing, her family moved to Park City, Utah 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.[5] She enrolled at Colorado College in 2017.[6]

Skiing career

Atkin has dual British and US nationality, but joined the GB Park & Pipe programme, and started competing for Great Britain when she was 15 during the 2013–2014 season.[7][8] In 2017, she competed in the ski slopestyle World Cup competition at Silvaplana, and became the first British woman to win a World Cup event in ski slopestyle.[4] She competed at the FIS Freestyle Ski and Snowboarding World Championships 2017 in Sierra Nevada, Spain, where she won bronze in slopestyle.[4] In January 2018, she won bronze at the ski slopestyle World Cup held in Aspen Snowmass, Colorado.[9]

2018 Winter Olympics

At the 2018 Winter Olympic Games at Pyeongchang, South Korea, she scored 84.60 points in her final run to win a bronze in slopestyle. Her win is considered Great Britain'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 after testing positive in a drug test.[10]

References
  1. "Isabel Atkin – British Ski and Snowboard". www.teambss.org.uk. Retrieved 17 February 2018.
  2. Isabel Atkin at the International Ski Federation
  3. McGeehan, Matt (17 February 2018). "Who is Izzy Atkin? Everything you need to know about Great Britain's first Olympic medal-winning skier". The Independent.
  4. Bell, Graham (15 January 2018). "Meet freestyle skier Izzy Atkin, one of Britain's best Winter Olympic medal hopes". The Daily Telegraph.
  5. Ingle, Sean (17 February 2018). "Stoked' Izzy Atkin becomes Britain's first Olympic medal-winning skier". The Guardian.
  6. Forster, Liz (17 February 2018). "Colorado College freshman becomes Britain's first Olympic medal-winning skier". The Gazette.
  7. "GB Park and Pipe's Izzy Atkin: One Year to Go to PyeongChang 2018 #1YTG". British Ski + Snowboard. 9 February 2017.
  8. Laker, Laurie (9 February 2018). "CC's Izzy Atkin '21 Wins Bronze at the Olympics". Colorado College.
  9. "Winter Olympics 2018: Izzy Atkin stars but Lindsey Vonn struggles". BBC Sports. 15 January 2018.
  10. Bloom, Ben (17 February 2018). "Izzy Atkin wins Britain's first ever skiing Winter Olympics medal". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 17 February 2018.
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