Mia Brookes: Britain's teenage snowboard prospect on the 2026 Winter Olympics

While young freestyle skier Kirsty Muir was winning the plaudits for her Winter Olympics debut performances, another British teenager was watching the action thousands of miles away.

Mia Brookes is one of the most exciting snowboarding prospects Britain has ever produced but the Beijing Games came too soon for the 15-year-old, who was not old enough to be allowed to compete.

So instead Brookes was marvelling at skiers and snowboarders as they tackled the slopestyle and big air while she was plotting her path to Milan-Cortina in 2026.

Brookes was philosophical about missing Beijing, telling BBC Sport: «I wasn't really too bothered because I knew that I wouldn't have been able to go anyway.

»I'm just really excited now to go and work towards everything for the next four years."

Brookes said the standard of Olympic snowboarding was off the scale with Zoi Sadowski-Synnott claiming gold in slopestyle and Anna Gasser winning the big air.

«It was mental, unbelievable. Zoe was just unreal. They were all riding like the men. It was ridiculous,» she said.

Because of her young age, Brookes can currently only compete in Europa Cup events, which is the level down from the top tier World Cups.

Her undoubted talent is underlined by the fact out of the 12 competitions she has entered, she has won eight of them and finished on the podium in all but one.

This week she is in Leysin in Switzerland at the World Junior Snowboard Championships and said: «I've got my eye on gold but we'll see how it goes.

»This group of girls and everyone around my age that is coming through, we're the next group that will probably be going to the Olympics so we are all pushing each other."

Next season Brookes will be old enough to compete in World Cups and a win in