James Barnes-Miller in the ascendancy ahead of snowboard cross finals

James Barnes-Miller is preparing to get game ready after he secured a strong position in the men’s snowboard cross seeding at Milano Cortina.

The Para snowboarder finished fifth with a fastest time of 52.17 seconds over two runs in the SB-UL seeding.

It marked a two-second improvement on his first run as Barnes-Miller laid down an upwards trajectory ahead of the finals tomorrow.

“I made a mistake in turn four in the first run. I came over the roller a bit light and then folded in half so then you haven’t got any speed, it’s really hard to make it up again,” he explained.

“I just wanted to clear that up and I did. [Now I’m] sitting alright for tomorrow when we race properly.”

It marks Barnes-Miller’s third Paralympic Games having made his debut at PyeongChang 2018 and once again he will be in among the medal contenders.

The achievement has so far eluded him, though he has come close, finishing 6th in the snowboard cross in 2018 and 9th four years later in Beijing.

His seeding would have him higher than both those finishes as he competes for a final time at the Games, having become a new father in November 2025.

But with four athletes all competing at the same time in knockout-style finals, snowboard cross presents unique challenges.

“I can’t wait, it’s better when there’s four of you. It gets you game ready,” enthused Barnes-Miller.

And just as contending with three other athletes on the course will bring its own complexities, the weather in Cortina D’Ampezzo is also posing different problems for the snowboarders.

With the sun beaming down on grateful spectators, the athletes can experience changes in the snow that affects the way their board will ride.

But Barnes-Miller remains unphased by the course, despite a small change he had little time to get to grips with, and is only in the ascendancy.

“The start is the same. The actual bit they’ve changed is really quite simple, so it didn’t take much to learn. It was just solely a mistake that I did in the first run,” he explained.

“The start I’ve been neatening up every run, it’s been getting better.”