Ahead of Beijing 2022, The Earl of Wessex, Patron of GB Snowsport, chats the oldest and youngest members of Team GB, Dave Ryding and Kirsty Muir.
Fearless Paralympian Menna Fitzpatrick has been skiing since she was five-years old, guided by her dad, despite having just 5% overall vision. Go back to where it all began in this short film made by Redrow.
We’re delighted to welcome four-time Paralympic Cycling medallist, Jon-Allan Butterworth MBE, to the GB Snowsport Para Snowboard Team.
Learn more about how the worlds of skateboarding and snowboarding collide in this edit from our #ProjectBalance event last month.
Hear from Matt McCormick himself about his road to recovery from concussion in his Team GB Destination Winter vlog.
Check out Charlie Guest’s One Year to go Vlog for Team GB.
It’s exactly one year to go until the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022!
Back in November the GB Snowsport Freestyle team were knee deep in pre-season training hitting the airbags at Banger Park in Austria. Come along for the ride on a rainy day of adjustments, rotations and trick progression.
When Dave was six years-old, his father Carl, a ski-mad lifelong enthusiast, encouraged him to take lessons at the local dry ski slopes near their home – so he joined Pendle Ski Club.
Dave specialises in the discipline of Slalom and has achieved nine British Slalom Titles, five World Cup podiums, was Europa Cup Slalom Champion 2012/13 and has competed at 4 Winter Olympic Games. Dave was the first British skier to win Alpine World Cup Gold in Kitzbuehel in January 2022.
Born in Hemel Hempstead, Bankes moved to the southern alps of France with her family when she was just four years old, and has been racing internationally for France since she was 15. In November 2018 changed licences and now competes for Great Britain.
In 2021 Charlotte became World Snowboard Cross Champion in Idrefjäll, Sweden.
Dominating the 2021-22 winter season, Charlotte won five out of the eight Snowboard Cross World Cups on the calendar and was awarded the Crystal Globe.
Makayla was born in Chelmsford, Essex. She first started skiing at the age of four when she went on holiday to Val Thorens with her family. By the time she was six her family decided to move to Châtel, a small town in the French Alps, joining the local Freestyle team at the age of eleven, following in her brother and sister’s footsteps.
Makayla started competing at the age of twelve and rapidly gained success obtaining podium positions regularly. In 2017 she competed in her first World Championships at Sierra Nevada.
James ‘Woodsy’ Woods is a Slopestyle, Freeskier from Sheffield, UK. He learned to ski at the Sheffield Ski Village near his family home. He has won six medals at FIS World Cup and two medals at FIS World Championships.
Mia has been snowboarding since she was eighteen months old, travelling around Europe in the family motorhome. Mia met the GB Snowsport Freestyle coaches while out in Laax when she was ten years old and later that year was selected to the team’s development squad.
In her senior debut at the Europa Cup slopestyle in Corvatsch, Switzerland in December 2020 Mia exploded onto the senior scene grabbing a spot on the podium, placing second.
Having achieved a slew of under-age titles at British Indoor, Championships Ski & Snowboard and The BRITS Championships, Kirsty Muir made the senior ranks stand up and take notice in 2018. At the 2018 BRITS, the Kirsty won all three Freeski titles – Big Air, Slopestyle and Halfpipe.
In January 2020 Kirsty took home a silver medal at the Winter Youth Olympics in Lausanne, Switzerland, narrowly missing out on gold, with a superb third run in the Freeski Big Air. At the Beijing Olympic Games in 2022, Kirsty had two top 8 finishes in the Big Air (5th) and Slopestyle (8th) competitions.
Ollie learnt to ski on annual holidays to France from a young age. At the age of 8 his family moved to France and a hobby became a passion when he joined the local French club (Montchavin Les Coches).
Despite a ski career made up of a variety of snowsport disicplines, Ollie’s passion for Ski Cross culminated in Ollie to becoming the first Brit to compete in the Big Final at a Ski Cross World Championship in February 2021, where he placed 4th.
Katie started Snowboarding at Halifax dry slope when she was five years old. At 15 years old, Katie became the youngest girl to land a Double backflip on a Snowboard and at the age of 16 did the World’s first female Backside Double Cork 1080.
However, at the end of her outstanding 2019/20 season Katie was crowned Snowboard Slopestyle Crystal Globe winner, the first British female as well as first British snowboarder to complete the feat.
Andrew is a cross-country skier from Oyne, in North-East Scotland. He got involved in serious racing through his local club, Huntly Nordic Ski Club.
Andrew has firmly established himself as a top level skier internationally. He’s been on the podium at World Cup, won the Norwegian Championships and has a number of solid results from the Olympics and the World Championships.
Menna Fitzpatrick was born visually impaired; she has no vision in her left eye and limited sight in her right – less than 5% overall vision. Determined that she would not be disadvantaged her parents taught her to ski when she was 5 years old on holidays in France.
At the 2018 Pyeongchang Paralympic Games, Menna and guide, Jen Kehoe became Britain’s Most-Decorated Winter Paralympians winning one gold, two silver and one bronze medal.
Scott Meenagh was inspired to try Para Nordic skiing after getting a taste of winter sport during Sochi 2014, which he experienced as part of the Paralympic Inspiration Programme.
Prior to that Scott competed in para rowing at an international level. He started Nordic Skiing in December 2014 and made the switch from rowing full time in March 2016.
Scott made his competitive debut for Great Britain at the World Cup in Vuokatti, Finland in December 2016.
At the PyeongChang 2018 Paralympic Winter Games Scott became the first British Para Nordic skier to represent his country at that level. He raced six times at PyeongChang, covering 60km, with his best result coming in the men’s 12.5km sitting biathlon where he finished 13th.
As a youngster Scott played rugby competitively and represented West of Scotland and Scotland under 18s.
He was injured when he stepped on an improvised explosive device (IED) while serving in Afghanistan at the age of 21.
Since making his Paralympic debut in Pyeongchang Scott has continued to impress on the international circuit, claiming a host of top-10 results at the 2019 World Championships in Prince George, Canada.
Despite an interrupted 2021 season, Scott finished 8th in the long distance cross country event at the delayed 2021 World Championships, taking place in Lillehammer, Norway in January 2022.
Callum was involved in a serious motorcycle road traffic accident while travelling to work in June 2017, in which he broke both legs and resulted in an above knee amputation of his left leg five days
later.
Once recovered, Callum was introduced to Para Nordic skier and now ParalympicsGB teammate, Scott Meenagh, who was Great Britain’s sole Para Nordic competitor at the 2018 Pyeongchang
Games.
This eventually led to Callum joining Scott and the Armed Forces Para Snowsports team on a trip to Germany, where he would begin his journey in Para Nordic skiing.
Less than a year after taking up the sport, and in just his second race, Callum achieved the Paralympic qualification time at the 2019 World Championships in Prince George, Canada after finishing 14th in the Middle Distance Cross Country event.
Callum has also started to compete in the Biathlon events and is set to make his Paralympic debut at Beijing in both Cross Country and Biathlon.
Despite his participation in the 2021 World Championships being derailed by a bout of Covid-19, Callum comes into the Games high in confidence following a 9th place finish in the sprint biathlon race at the 2022 Östersund World Cup.
@gbsnowsport
