Zoe Atkin finished the Winter Olympics for Team GB in style, with the star winning a bronze medal in the closing moments of the Games. Following her success on the slopes in Milano Cortina, Zoe returned to London, where she chatted to HELLO! about her experience at the Games, including her lack of romance.
She joked: "Our event was so late, so I went back to Switzerland after the opening ceremony to keep training until my event. I was only in the Olympic village for the last week, and by the time I was there so many people have had left the village. I didn't get my little Love Island story unfortunately, but maybe in 2030 in France."
Although the 23-year-old didn't find romance, her bronze medal was certainly more important, although when she spoke to us, she admitted that she hadn't yet had time to celebrate the medal properly.
"It's definitely the culmination of a lot of years of work," she told us. "To think about my Olympic debut four years ago to now winning my first medal. It's just definitely been such a journey. It felt really, really good, and it was definitely a dream come true for me, but we haven't had a ton of time to celebrate.
"We were on the last event, the same day as closing ceremony. So, it was straight from the half pipe to media, and then we were in the van going to Verona for closing ceremonies, and then to a Team GB little party thing, and then the next morning flight to London."
It's been a long journey for the athlete who made her Winter Olympics debut in 2022, managing to secure ninth place, although this was far down from her World Cup victories that came years before. "I had these really high expectations for my Olympic debut, and I was pretty hard on myself going into the Olympics, and I feel like I didn't perform the way I wanted to, which was really disappointing for me," she admitted. "And I remember being so crushed, because it was the only thing I had going on, I was so focused on just that one event.
© Getty Images"Since then, I've been able to frame it in a different way. I'm not just training for the Olympics, I'm pushing my limits every single day, and trying to get a little bit better every single day, focusing on the progression of what I'm doing and improving on, rather than specifically the results. That's when I ended up getting successes with medals. Obviously, I was looking forward to redemption from the last Games. It's easy to say now that I have a medal, but truly it is about that journey."
However, Zoe's bronze medal came with its own set of controversy, with several commentators feeling that she was robbed of a higher place on the podium, with the 23-year-old athlete ultimately losing out China's Eileen Gu and Li Fanghui.
© VCG via Getty ImagesAddressing this, Zoe didn't hold any bad blood, saying: "It's really cool that it's all so close. I thought when I came down and I had landed a better run than my first run score, I thought that I would jump up, but at the same time there's only so much I can control.
"All I can do is ski my best, and at the end of the day, it's in the judge's hands. I'm really happy that I was able to walk away with a medal, I would be devastated if I was just off the podium. I'm really stoked with my skiing, which is the most important thing, and I'm stoked that I was able to show the world what I've been working on and be that leading person."
Friendly rivalry
Zoe isn't the only freestyle skier in her family, with her older sister, Isabel, winning a bronze medal at the 2018 Winter Olympic Games. The skier confirmed that the pair do have a rivalry going with each other, joking that it was mainly one-sided.
She teased: "It's probably coming more from me because I'm the younger one. Every time she did something, I always wanted to do just a little bit better, or do it before she did. I've always been in her shadow, in a sense, and I really wanted to make my own name for myself and my own ski career.
© Instagram"There's a little bit of rivalry, but we're both super supportive of each other. She's always the person I call whenever training is going badly, or I'm stressed out, or I'm scared to try a new trick, and just to have someone who's been there and done it all before and knows what it's like to compete at the highest level, that kind of wisdom is just so valuable."
Over the next few weeks, the duo will be putting their rivalry to the side as they head on holiday together. "We haven't decided on where we're going to go," she explained, before joking: " I'm hoping somewhere warm, because I've spent so much time in winter for the past four years."
Balancing studies and sport
Even though she's busy competing in the Winter Olympics, Zoe is still incredibly busy as a student, and she told us that she would be back in her studies next month.
© InstagramSpeaking about how she balances both of these the 23-year-old said: "For the past couple years, I was taking the winters off and doing the summer instead, but there would be a couple times where I'd have to miss school or do school after training. On the other hand, being a normal university student outside of skiing has really helped me develop as a person. I've developed maturity and identity for myself outside of skiing results. That's really important for athletes, and it's also helped with my performance by taking the pressure off."
She added: "I feel like I'm up here with the emotions and the experience, and then I'll be hanging my medal on my trophy shelf and leaving it behind to go to school. It's a little bit crazy!"
