GB’s Kirsty Muir bids for Big Air redemption after ‘a bit of heartbreak’ in Olympic slopestyle

Around 48 hours after a crushing fourth place in freestyle skiing slopestyle, Team GB’s Kirsty Muir was in a better frame of mind.

The 21-year-old was denied a bronze medal by just 0.41 points, recovering after errors on her first two runs to land an excellent third – but it wasn’t quite enough to dislodge Canada’s Megan Oldham and seal a first-ever Olympic medal.

A distraught Muir was in floods of tears after the event but after two days to process her emotions the Red Bull athlete, who I met at the brand’s athlete chalet on the outskirts of Livigno, was in a calmer frame of mind.

“I’m just quite mixed,” the softly-spoken Scot admitted. “Obviously missing out on an Olympic medal, being that close is hard and it's going to be hard for anyone, no matter what competition. Fourth is such a hard place to be in, but even more so at the Olympics.

“All my friends, family, supporters from home have all been like, fourth at the Olympics, fourth in the world, congrats, and I feel that as well, but it's just hard because you want that podium. But at the same time I'm very proud of my skiing.”

All the pressure was on Muir ahead of her final run, and she had to reset mentally after failing to stick her penultimate jump, a double cork 1080, on her opening two runs. “I was going for a harder grab in my double because I knew that's what I needed to do to try and win.

“Initially I just went all out, when I could have done a more safe run and maybe had a chance at that podium, definitely not for the win, and I didn't want to play like that.

“It's hard to speak about it in hindsight because I could have done this, could have done that, but at the same time, the other girls could have done even more or they could have made it perfect. So I had to go for it. I can't not go for it in a competition.”

Muir did not watch any of her competitors’ runs – “I can't do that during a competition because it just gets in my head, so I didn't know where it would be in the standings,” she explained of her final run. “I thought it would be close. When I saw the score… yeah, definitely a bit of heartbreak.”

The fifth stage of processing grief is said to be acceptance, but it’s the first stage of processing Olympic disappointment. “It's always trying to accept what's happened,” Muir said, “and put it in the past and focus on the present. A couple of weeks ago at X Games I won the first competition [slopestyle] and within three hours I had my next competition [Big Air], so I was on such a high, had some media, did bits and pieces, then just had to completely forget about it and move on to the next one. You can have confidence from the past, but in the moment you just have to be there, so it's what I need to do for this one, accept it as best as I can and move on to Big Air.”

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Muir managed to put her own disappointment to one side to come back out to Livigno Snow Park later that evening to watch her close friend and teammate Mia Brookes in action in her Big Air final.

Brookes also finished fourth, although further off the podium than Muir after over-rotating a hugely ambitious final jump in a bid to make Olympic history. A backside 1620 has never been landed by a female snowboarder in Olympic competition; had she landed it she would have been assured of bronze, and possibly silver. Muir was one of the few watching to know Brookes would attempt such a daredevil manoeuvre, having never landed the jump on snow and not even tried it in five months.

“I was gutted for her as well,” Muir said. “I obviously knew exactly how she was feeling, but at the same time, Mia went for the 16 which I was so proud of her for. Everyone was like, what's she going to do on the third run? Will she go for the cab 14 again? And I was like, she's got to do the back 16.

“It's not the result that she wanted, but at the same time, that was almost more personal growth for her, so I was stoked that she tried it.

“As soon as she came over to me, I just said how proud of her I was, gave her a big hug. She was in a slightly different headspace afterwards, I think she just really wanted to go for another run and try and land it, whilst in my circumstance, I was quite upset because I had put down a run and it was just ever so slightly not good enough.”

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The pair have been enjoying their downtime at the Games together – Brookes has taught Muir how to play the video game Fortnite, and they have been going for glory in a different sense by competing at Mario Kart.

There has been support from the wider Team GB squad too: four-time Olympian Charlotte Bankes, who is nine years Muir’s senior, is no stranger to Olympic heartbreak after a quarter-final exit in her individual snowboard cross event in Beijing. “She knows how I feel with the fourth and stuff, so she was just saying that I was skiing really well and that she was proud of me, and that she knows how it feels.”

Bankes was devastated by another quarter-final exit on Friday, but bounced back to win Britain’s first ever Olympic gold on snow with Huw Nightingale in the mixed team event on Sunday. Muir will be hoping for a similar redemption story, and having qualified in fourth place for Big Air, will feel confident she can push onto the podium.

She said: “I think I'm always going to have that hint of being close, but I’ve got to take the positives. Fourth in the competition out of all the girls, but the bigger thing for me was that I managed to reset after not landing two runs and get it down on my third run because that was quite a lot more pressure. I'm never usually that angry at myself, but I really was after the second run and I had to do a bigger reset than I usually do.

“It's been a good season and I've been feeling really good with my skiing, and I just want to carry that on and try and put down the best tricks I can in the Big Air. It’s slightly different because it is just two tricks, three runs, and it's kind of nicer because you can just really focus on that trick. Slopestyle, there's a lot to think about in one run and a lot to be clean, but this one's just kind of go and put your best out there. I'm excited for it.”