Saturday, February 17th at around 4 am in the morning (GMT) is when the Women’s Slopestyle skiing finals are expected to get underway and there is big British interest going in the event as well. Britain have two skiers in the competition, Izzy Atkin and Katie Summerhayes. Of the two of them, former US skier Izzy Atkins could well be in amongst the medals.
Atkin a medal contender
Atkin had a breakthrough season in 2017 becoming the first ever teenager to get up on the top step of a World Cup podium with a tremendous performance in Silvaplana, Switzerland. Was it a one-off fluke though? Not at all, she went to the World Championships in the Sierra Nevada just a couple of weeks after that history-making moment in Switzerland and she took bronze at the event.
Back in January 2018, she was in ripe form again as she took bronze at the ski slopestyle World Cup and Grand Prix in Aspen Snowmass, Colorado. Atkin’s career has been building and building and before she took that win in Silvaplana she had recorded eleven top ten results. The field that she was up against at Silvaplana included all three Olympic medallists from Sochi 2014 – Dara Howell, Devin Logan and Kim Lamarre – as well as the then World Cup leader Sarah Hoefflin. Atkin is 10/1 at Bet365 to land gold* (Betting Odds taken on February 7th, 2018 at 9:40 p.m.) at the 2018 Olympics.
Performance timeline of Atkin
2013 Junior World Championships Slopestyle, Valmalenco 9th
2015 World Cup Slopestyle, Silvaplana 7th
2016 Olympic Slopestyle test event, Bokwang 7th
2017 World Cup Slopestyle, Font Romeu 6th
2017 World Cup Big Air, Quebec City 5th
2017 World Cup Slopestyle, Silvaplana 1st
2017 World Championships Slopestyle, Sierra Nevada 3rd
2018 World Cup Slopestyle Aspen 3rd
Atkin will be joining in the field for the Slopestyle at the 2018 Winter Olympics by Katie Summerhayes who is 40/1 at bet365 to win gold* (Betting Odds taken on February 7th, 2018 at 9:40 p.m.). Summerhays had a great time of things back in Sochi four years ago when she came home seventh in the slopestyle event which was after qualifying in third place for the finals. She did go on to take a gold at the 2014 Junior World Championships and just a year later she got silver in the slopestyle at the World Championships, becomming the first British competitor to win a medal at the Worlds in freestyle skiing.
Women’s Slopestyle Winner Odds
Johanne Killi 3/1, Jennie-Lee Burmansson 15/4, Maggie Voisin 9/2, Tess Leleux 5/1, Tiril Sjåstad Christiansen 6/1, Isabel Atkin 10/1, Sarah Hofflin 12/1, Emma Dahlstrom 14/1, Carolin Claire 33/1, Katie Summerhayes 40/1, Devin Logan 40/1, Anastasia Tatalina 50/1* (Betting Odds taken on February 7th, 2018 at 9:40 p.m.)
Predictions
There is a genuine chance at a medal for Atkin here. Looking back at the 2018 Winter X Games, the outright favourite here Killi only came home seventh with the USA’s Voisin taking the gold after running first run. Switzerland’s Sarah Hoefflin is a great option to consider to get up on the podium and so too are the Swedish pair of Burmansson and Dahlstrom who are both top five finishers at the Winter X in January.
We are going to assume that Atkin can hold her nerve and get on the podium and we would run with Burmansson and Hoefflin to join her up there in some order.
