Snowboarder Charlotte Bankes reveals why she doesn't need to diet and worry about what she eats

Great Britain’s 30-year-old Charlotte Bankes is among the favourites for the snowboard cross event at the Winter Olympics.

One of the most exciting alpine sports, Olympic snowboard cross features four riders battling for position on a course between 1,000 and 1,500m long with curved banks (berms), humps and waves that help to launch riders into the air.

The current World Cup mixed snowboard cross champion, Bankes’s career is laden with victories but no Olympic title yet. Is this her time?

Your family moved from Britain to the French Alps when you were a child, so you initially represented France, until 2018…

We didn’t move for snowboarding so much as the possibility of living a more outdoors life, but I feel fortunate they made that decision. Although I’ve grown up in France, I still feel British and feel proud to represent Great Britain. But the local community in France still supports me, so I’ve found the right balance.

So, French coffee or British tea bags?

I’m fuelled on tea; I probably drink two litres of tea a day. I take a flask with me on the hill so I can have a cup of tea before the start of a race. I’ve also got a kettle for the hotels so I can make a proper cup of tea. I take my own bags of Yorkshire Tea with me.

Do you have a special diet, plenty of protein shakes?

No, I don’t like any of that stuff! Riders don’t have to be that careful with what we eat, it’s more about getting a balanced diet that fuels the body properly. I really like a curry. There are certain mornings before races where you’re not that hungry and my go-to is toast and Marmite.

Riders can reach speeds of 70km an hour, are you scared of crashes?

Fear is there but it makes you concentrate. If you’re riding in a pack with people around, then you really have to focus on your own moves before wondering what the others are doing.

You damaged your pelvis in 2011 and then, in 2025, crashed in training — how has that affected you going into these Olympics?

My preparation hasn’t been the same as usual because I was injured. I broke a collarbone training on the World Cup track last season and I damaged my ACL [anterior cruciate ligament] in training. I was only back on the snow at the start of November. You have to stay focused on yourself, but also have to get back out there racing so you can perform.

You won the mixed event with Huw Nightingale at the World Cup in Cervinia, Italy in December after being at the back of the race…

I’m in a comfortable place when I’m just behind the pack and chasing. I’m good at seeing spaces to get past and making those overtakes. But wherever I am in the race at the Olympics, I won’t give up until I cross that finish line.

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