Jenny Jones: Team GB’s slopestyle contender

Jenny Jones may have been at the top of slopestyle snowboarding for well over a decade, but Sochi will see her make her Olympic debut at the grand age of 33, thanks to the sport’s inclusion in the Games for the first time, writes Becky Horsbrugh.

The Bristolian began snowboarding when she was 17 when a local dry slope was offering free lessons. She was already competing in athletics and gymnastics, but she quickly developed a passion for snow.

She worked as a chalet maid for a season in the French resort of Tignes after finishing college to get experience on the slopes, and in 1999 came first in the British Bigair Championships.

Jones then began competing on the world stage, going on to win three gold medals at the Winter X-Games in 2009 and 2010. At last year’s World Championships she finished sixth and claimed her first World Cup podium this season with silver in New Zealand, underlining her medal potential ahead of Sochi.

Jones suffered a setback in her Olympic preparations when she was concussed in a training crash in Austria before Christmas. She was out of competitive action for four weeks, but appears to be back to full fitness.

Due to her age, Jones’s only realistic chance of claiming Olympic gold is in Sochi. She goes into the games as one of the favourites in her discipline, and one of the favourites to claim Britain’s first ever olympic gold on the snow.

Slopestyle – where snowboarders negotiate a course featuring obstacles like pipes and jumps – is one of 10 snowboarding events at Sochi. There are also men’s and women’s events in the halfpipe, parallel giant slalom, snowboard cross and parallel slalom.

Jenny Jones will be in action today in the slopestyle qualifying event. The semifinals and finals are on Sunday 9 February.

Women's snowboarding slopestyle at Sochi
6 February - qualification
9 February - semifinals
9 February - finals

Becky Horsbrugh is a producer for Channel 4 News