Atkin and Kenworthy heading to halfpipe finals

Freestyle Skiing 17 Feb 22

Like most teenagers, Zoe Atkin struggles to get out of bed in the morning but when she does it is certainly worth waiting for.

The 19-year-old freestyle skier shone on her Olympic debut, qualifying fourth for tomorrow’s halfpipe final where she will be in serious medal contention.

They say freestyle snowsports is a lifestyle, but Team GB’s skiing superstar took the laid back approach a tad too far after revealing she did not set an alarm this morning - and it is not her first timekeeping issue heading into the Games.

“I’m having so much fun but I have also had a couple of mishaps. I missed my flight on the way here and I forgot to set an alarm this morning,” revealed Atkin.

“I’ll set two tomorrow to make sure it doesn’t happen again!”

Atkin laced two stellar runs, recording a score of 85.25 first time out to leave her fifth before moving into fourth with 86.75 with her second, just 0.75 behind Estonian star Kelly Sildaru and the provisional medal places.

Atkin’s elder sister Izzy is cheering her on at the pipe having won slopestyle bronze in PyeongChang before pulling out of competing here following a setback in her bid to recover sufficiently from a broken pelvis.

And the younger Atkin, who took bronze in last year’s World Championships, could be the one having a medal dangled around her neck this time with a few more tricks up her sleeve for the showpiece.

“I was really nervous. You are even more nervous on qualifiers day than finals day,” said Atkin.

“I just wanted to put down a clean run. After my first run, I was like, ‘phew, all the pressure’s off.’

“Then I put down an even better second run and I’m really excited to be in the finals tomorrow.

“You will have to wait and see and watch! But I definitely have a couple of tricks I might want to put into tomorrow’s final and step it up. I’m excited.”

Gus Kenworthy joined Atkin by making the men’s halfpipe final although the 30-year-old faced an anxious wait after qualifying in the 12th and final place.

On his debut for Team GB - having competed for USA at the last two Games, winning slopestyle silver at Sochi 2014 - Kenworthy hit the ground hard on his first run.

But the Chelmsford-born star regathered his poise and played it more conservatively the second time around, scoring 70.75 which put him into the mix to make it through to Saturday’s final.

With the vast majority of the field still to ski, Kenworthy could only watch on and hope, but eventually his spot was confirmed.

“It did not go very well but it went well enough and I'm just relieved - that was stressful watching from 12th position as the entire field took their second run,” said Kenworthy.

"I took a bad slam in my first run and was more conservative in my second run and nearly paid the price with that nervous wait.

"It means the world to be representing Team GB. I considered doing it at the last two Games and while I'm grateful for my years on the US, I'm excited to be doing this for Team GB and my mum."