Born in Cheshire, turned 18 last month and was already a record world champion. However, this teenage sports sensation is not famous for throwing darts to a board, but for being on a board throwing around the mountains.
“I'm quite bad in Darts, so I'll leave that to him!” Mia Brookes laughs, born in Sandbach on January 19, 2007, two days before Luke Littler de Warrington. “It is really impressive what he has done and it is really great that we are both from Cheshire and both 18 years. He is sick to be putting Cheshire on the map.”
Like Littler, Snowboarder Brookes is the youngest world champion in his respective sport, winning 16 -year -old Slopestyle gold in 2023. That led her to be named BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year, the same prize claimed by Littler in December .
Brookes is not yet a family name like its launch counterpart. But all that could change in 12 months, since it offers to become the first British to win a Snowboard gold medal at the Winter Olympic Games. With exactly one year for the end of Milan Cortina 2026, Brookes is the current World Cup in its Slopestyle and Big Air events.
“It is crazy that all this has happened to me at such an early age,” says Mail Sport de Aspen, USA, where he recently secured two podium places in the prestigious X Games.
'The Olympic Games are definitely at the bottom of my mind and, as we approach, they are approaching. I am not pressing too much. Whatever happens, I only excite me to be there with all my friends.
The feeling of Snowboard Mia Brookes is anxious to win the Gold Medal at the 2026 Winter Games in Italy
In 2023, he became the youngest snowboard world champion in Georgia at the age of 16
'But obviously I would like to go there and win. Being able to say that I have an Olympic gold would really be crazy. '
Brookes had only 18 months when he first set foot in a snowboard at the Kidsgrove ski center in Stoke, where his grandfather David and Grandma Tina worked. “My grandfather died a long time ago, but my grandmother is still close and still loves him,” she says. “He has never seen me compete live, but plans to go out to the Olympic Games, which will really be sweet.”
The parents of Brookes, Nigel and Vicky, are also enthusiasts of the snow port and took her to Montchavin, France, when she was only eight weeks, giving her a first sample of the slopes tied to her chest in a Papoose. The family was described with love for friends like 'Three hippies in a motorhome' while school vacations passed in ski stations in Europe.
“Autocaravan was like a second home for me,” Brookes recalls, who perfected his skills in the United Kingdom in Chill Factore in Manchester. 'I loved being in the mountains and riding with my mother and dad.
“We never prepare to try to reach this level, we loved snowboarding as a family and has taken me where I am now.”
Brookes's first memory of watching sport on television was when he was seven in 2014, when Jenny Jones became the first British to win an Olympic Snowboard Medal with a bronze from Slopestyle in Sochi.
“I remember seeing her running and having been” that is great, “she says. 'I never had any intention to leave. I thought I was very, very sick.
However, it was soon clear that Brookes was destined to follow the steps of Jones. He was only 10 years old when he was seen by GB Snowsport and competed in the British championship a year later. However, the rapid rise of Brookes to the top stopped temporarily in 2021, when it was knocked out in a serious accident on the tracks, which made her remain outside her snowboard for three months while recovering from severe headaches.
British talent began Snowboard only at 18 at the Kidsgrove ski center in Stoke
Less than a month after turning 18, Brooks revealed the story about the serious accident that left her unconscious for 40 minutes
“I was transferred by snow plane and I was unconscious for about 40 minutes,” she says. 'I was very lucky that it was just a brain shock and I had no other injuries. But it was quite difficult to return. Three months without snowboarding was quite empty.
'There were some small mental barriers that I had to pass, just beginning to ride jumps again. But soon I returned to normal and felt that I had never been outside.
Brookes was too young to qualify for the last Olympic Games in Beijing in 2022, turning 15 years only 19 days after the cutting period. A year later, however, he won that gold in the World Championship, becoming the first woman to get a double grip Cab 1440, a trick that involves four complete rotations in the air while grabbing the board twice.
This season, Brookes has already won three World Cup events, one in Slopestyle and two in Big Air, while preparing for the defense of his world title defense in St. Moritz, Switzerland next month. Such is its relentless winter schedule, it has not yet had time to celebrate its 18th birthday, although it has a late gift for itself in mind.
“I'm probably going to get a tattoo in Los Angeles,” she says. 'I'm not sure what will be, I'm still deciding. But I was not tattooed at the Olympic rings next year. That is too cliché!
Far from the slopes, Brookes is an enthusiastic skate and surfer and his taste in music reflects his hobbies for searching for emotions.
“I like Heavy Metal, like Metallica and Megadeth,” he adds. 'I listen to that before the competitions to get excited. I also like to play the electric guitar. I'm quite well.
British fans hope Brookes will be in tune at the Olympic Games next year.