Snowboarding prodigy Mia Brookes (UK) is officially the youngest snowboarding world champion in the history of the sport.
Aged 16 years 39 days, she won the women’s snowboard slopestyle at the FIS Freestyle Ski and Snowboarding World Championships in Bakuriani, Georgia, on 27 February 2023.
With an impressive score of 91.38, Brookes is also Britain's first-ever world champion in the event.
Mia fell in love with the sport from a very young age, getting on a snowboard as soon as she could walk. In fact, she was encouraged to try snowboarding by her parents who spent five ski seasons in Chamonix, widely known as the skiing and snowboarding capital of the world.
“They took me away snowboarding when I was 18 months old and I’ve carried on since then,” Mia explains.
“My biggest influences have been some of the biggest names in snowboarding, like Jamie Anderson. She is a big role model of mine for how she approaches her snowboarding journey and how she deals with the mental aspect of snowboarding.”
Mia is very passionate about snowboarding: “It is the biggest part of my life and I think that every minute of it makes me love it even more, especially snowboarding with my friends and meeting new people who share the same amount of love for it as me.”
However, like every athlete, she has inevitably encountered obstacles at some point in her journey.
“The most challenging part is definitely injury,” Mia said, recalling times when she was injured and wasn’t allowed to snowboard until she had fully recovered.
She even got a serious concussion in 2021, resulting in her being unconscious for 40 minutes and needing to be airlifted off the snow. Fortunately, she recovered quickly after that.
When she is not snowboarding, Mia enjoys playing the guitar and drawing.
She also recently got into crocheting which, as she explains, is “nice and relaxing after a long day on the mountain, or when travelling to and from mountain resorts.”
But her love for sports is not limited to snowboarding: “Skateboarding and cycling are also some of my favourite sports! I really enjoy doing these to help me switch off from snowboarding.”
“Find something you are really passionate about, work hard at that every day and you will find success.” – Mia Brookes
Regarding her becoming a world record holder at the age of 16, she said: “Breaking this record at such a young age is so special to me and I’m super happy I did it during competition.”
Then, the teenager added: “I would definitely like to try and break more records in the future!”
Lastly, her advice to fellow girls and women is to “Find something you are really passionate about or something you really enjoy, work hard at that every day and you will find success within that.”
Mia’s achievement is Officially Amazing and definitely one for the books.
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