Zoe Atkin finished third in the halfpipe competition for skiing at the Olympics behind Li Fanghui and Eileen Gu. China took gold and silver while Great Britain took bronze.
Gu won comfortably but the second- and third-place finishers came down to just half a point.
Athletes are supposed to be rewarded for height at the Olympics, which made for a questionable result. The athlete who went the highest did not win gold or silver.
Zoe Atkin finished third in snowboard halfpipe competition.
Atkin is an American-born skier who chose to represent Great Britain because of her father. She has a lot in common with Eileen Gu but their respective decisions to compete for other countries are not exactly the same. They were expected to go 1-2 in the halfpipe competition on Sunday morning after qualifying.
However, Zoe Atkin ultimately finished third.
Gu cemented her status as the greatest of all-time with an incredible final run to score 94.75. Li Fangui scored 93.00. Atkin scored 92.5. It was a surprising result!
Gu stomped the most challenging run and deserved to win but the British skier rose higher than anyone else in the competition by a significant margin. Atkin hit a height of five meters— one full meter higher than Gu and nearly two meters higher than Fanghui.
— – (@Spicoli_____) February 22, 2026
The noise throughout the week was that the judges would reward height on the halfpipe. And yet, Atkin still slipped down to the bronze medal position behind a skier for whom she out-jumped. What gives?
Great Britain disagrees with the Olympics.
Vicky Gosling serves as the chief executive of GB Snowsport, the governing body of ski and snowboarding in the United Kingdom. Although she is thrilled for her athlete, she does not understand why Atkin did not finish higher than Fanghui if Atkin went higher than Fanghui during competition.
“I thought that the scoring was interesting. The minimum I thought she was going to get was silver. There are men that would struggle with the height Zoe actually gets. We’re absolutely delighted that we’ve got a medal. But did I take a big intake? I probably did.”
Gosling does not think the judging was fair.
‘Do I think [the scoring] was reflective of the tricks that she did and of the run that she did? If you want me to be really honest, then I probably say no.”
Atkin’s coach, Joe Schuster, took a more diplomatic approach to the controversy.
“Judging is a tough thing. I don’t want to say anything negative. I’m super happy. But if she had ended up higher than a bronze, I wouldn’t have been surprised.”
He also noted that the 23-year-old probably achieved “the highest air we’ve ever seen from a woman,” adding that “they do say that amplitude wins everything.” Schuster did not come out and say it like Gosling but you can read between the lines.
Zoe Atkins is thrilled to be on the podium.
“I was so stressed out and so nervous, so I’m just super stoked. To be on the podium means so much to me.”
The scoring is not something she wants to discuss. She did not watch Gu or Fanghui compete.
“I honestly didn’t watch the whole thing because I was really stressed. Sometimes watching other people can kind of make me a little nervous.”
Judging is subjective. It is what it is. Fair enough!