Team GB cross fingers for ‘Magic Monday’ with two snowsport medals up for grabs

Team GB have the potential to win two Winter Olympics medals today and guarantee another with hopes high for a ‘Magic Monday’ that will kick-start a gold rush through the rest of the Games.

Britain has never won a snowsport gold medal but could win two today, with 21-year-old Kirsty Muir and 19-year-old Mia Brookes among the favourites in freeski slopestyle and snowboard Big Air respectively.

And curling mixed doubles team Jen Dodds and Bruce Mouat, who won the world title together in 2021, could guarantee a medal if they win their semi-final on Monday.

The pair lost their aura of invincibility on Sunday when they were beaten for the first time in eight matches, with Switzerland edging them 7-5, but had already secured a berth in the last four.

But they returned to winning ways with a 9-6 victory over Italy – and a boisterous home crowd – later in the day. That result ensured they topped the group and will be top seeds in the last four, and crucially meant they will have the hammer in their semi-final where they will play fourth seeds Sweden.

Meanwhile, Muir qualified third for the slopestyle final on Saturday, despite having looked a little nervy on both her runs. China’s Eileen Gu, Switzerland’s Mathilde Gremaud and the USA’s Avery Krumme are the other serious contenders in a strong field.

Brookes also qualified third, demonstrating extraordinary grit and confidence to record the second-highest score of the night on her second run after falling at her first attempt.

With each athlete’s top two out of three runs counting, she needed to land safely on her third run and a score of 78.00 was enough to guarantee safe passage to the final.

“That was insane, honestly,” she said afterwards. “I loved it. Every minute was awesome, but definitely quite scary. After that first run, I was so nervous. You just have to take your time at the top, not rush into anything.”

Asked about the heightened pressure to deliver a brilliant second run, she said: “I think it really came out of me in an athlete way, just keeping cool under the pressure, not really making any rash decisions or rushing anything, so it was nice to see that coming from inside myself.

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“That third one was special to land that one. You're definitely in the air, thinking about it in the back of your mind, spinning, like, oh, my God, I've got to land this. So it was really special.”

Both youngsters are fresh from X Games glory in January, both in slopestyle disciplines, while Muir took silver and Brookes bronze in their respective Big Air events to underline their status as among the best in the world.

Brookes added: “I've grown up with Kirsty. We've known each other since we were younger, so to go into an Olympic final on the same day as her for Great Britain is really special.”

Scot Muir was GB’s youngest athlete at the Beijing Games in 2022 and has been through the wars since then, spending a year sidelined after tearing her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in December 2023. She required both knee and shoulder surgery before returning to competition, but took her first-ever World Cup victory in her first race back, in Tignes in March 2025.

Brookes was too young to compete in Beijing but is already a senior world champion, World Cup overall crystal globe winner and two-time X Games champion.

Her dramatic qualifying session was proof if more were needed that winter sports - and particularly Olympic events - are never straightforward and quite literally anything can happen. But if she, Muir, Dodds and Mouat perform to the their best Monday could be a day to remember for a nation of snow and ice underdogs.