In all of Olympic historical past, Britain has by no means received a medal in alpine snowboarding*. Nonetheless, in 1968 Gina Hathorn got here nearer than any British skier earlier than, and arguably since.
When Gina Hathorn stood at the beginning gate for the ladies’s slalom on the 1968 Winter Olympics, she had no thought she was on the verge of creating historical past for British snowboarding.
“A medal, or near a medal, didn’t enter my vocabulary,” she stated reflecting on the race virtually 58 years later.
Regardless of her expectations, Hathorn discovered herself in fifth place after the primary of her two runs down the mountain, nearer to the Olympic podium than any British skier earlier than her.
With only one run and a handful of rivals separating her from a medal, her thought course of was fairly easy, “Don’t make a large number of it now.”
Her second run was removed from a large number, although she did narrowly slip behind reigning world champion Annie Famose, inserting Hathorn in second with 4 skiers left to take to the course.
Two of these skiers, Judy Nagel of the USA and Brigitte Seiwald of Austria, suffered from main errors of their runs, ruling them out of rivalry. Nonetheless, the opposite two, France’s Marielle Goitschel and Canada’s Nancy Greene, put collectively near-flawless runs, securing them the gold and silver medals respectively, whereas Hathorn was pressured to accept 4th.
In the long run, it was a margin of three hundredths of a second that separated the Briton from a medal, however she didn’t really respect how shut she was till she spoke to the media.
“I used to be being interviewed by the press and folks have been saying, ‘Oh Gina, three hundredths!’ And I believed, ‘Rats! That could be a bit shut.’
Regardless of lacking out on a medal by such a high-quality margin, Hathorn’s 4th place end in Grenoble was nonetheless groundbreaking. By no means earlier than had a British competitor positioned so extremely in an Olympic occasion on snow, and her end result wouldn’t be bettered by one other British snowsport athlete till 2014, when Jenny Jones received bronze within the ladies’s snowboard slopestyle. In alpine snowboarding although, Hathorn’s 4th place stays Britain’s Olympic greatest.
Her end result, although, was not merely a fluke.
By 1968, Hathorn was an skilled skier on the worldwide circuit, having competed among the many world’s greatest for quite a few years.
Though born in Johannesburg and raised in Hampshire, Hathorn – who now goes by her married title Sopwith – realized her craft on the slopes of St Moritz, the place household would hire a chalet for a number of months every winter to facilitate her father’s work.
By the age of 13 she was competing in native competitions, and on the age of 17 she made Olympic debut on the Innsbruck 1964 video games.
She left Innsbruck with combined feelings although. Within the slalom, her most popular occasion, she crashed out of the competitors on her first run. Although within the downhill, she pleasantly stunned herself with a fifteenth place end, regardless of claiming to have had her eyes closed for a lot of the manner down the course.
Within the years following, she turned a daily on the alpine snowboarding circuit, and received Britain’s first ever medal in a World Cup race – a silver within the slalom at Grindelwald, Switzerland in 1967.
All of this paved the best way for her historic efficiency on the 1968 Olympics, after which she had deliberate to hold up her skis. She determined to proceed competing, nevertheless, after being persuaded by Mark Birley, the proprietor of London nightclub Annabel’s, who supplied her with the monetary backing to proceed competing till the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo, Japan.
Sadly for her, she was unable to duplicate her efficiency from 4 years earlier, along with her greatest end result being an eleventh place end within the slalom.
“I used to be so upset,” she stated reflecting on the Sapporo video games, “I actually thought I might loads higher. However I used to be 4 years older, I most likely wasn’t as match as I used to be earlier than, and actually nervous.”
Quickly after these Olympics, Hathorn retired from aggressive snowboarding, nevertheless she stayed near the game for quite a few years, presenting a present referred to as ‘Snowboarding with Gina’ on Yorkshire Tv earlier than opening a skiwear store in London along with her former teammate Divina Galica.
At present, on the age of 79, she has a much more distant relationship with the game, noting,
“I don’t even watch Ski Sunday. It’s not the identical. I wish to do it, not simply watch it.”
She does, nevertheless, stay supportive of Britain’s snowboarding crew and stated she can be “delighted” if her 4th place could possibly be bettered on the upcoming Olympics in Milan-Cortina, although she expressed doubt as to whether or not they would be capable of maintain tempo with the established alpine nations.
However for now, at the least, her efficiency stays unsurpassed.
(*Editor’s Word: Alain Baxter received the bronze medal within the slalom on the 2002 Winter Olympics earlier than having it taken from him in a choice many really feel was merciless and unfair, however his end result has been successfully erased from historical past).
