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.
“Hear from GB Snowsport Cross-Country Athlete Andrew Young after his third place finish in the Sprint – his first podium finish in five years – at Davos World Cup, and then 15th place in the 15km.”
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, two World Cup podiums, was Europa Cup Slalom Champion 2012/13 and has competed at 3 Winter Olympic Games.
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.
On February 11th 2021 Charlotte became World Snowboard Cross Champion in Idrefjäll, Sweden.
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.
Born in Essex, UK but raised in Telluride USA, Gus won AFP World Championships overall titles in 2011, 2012, and 2013 competing for the USA. In 2014, he won Silver at the Olympics in Sochi, Russia and won his first medal, a bronze, at the X Games in Tignes, France in the slopestyle event.
In 2019 he moved over to compete for Great Britain and in February 2020, Gus won his first World Cup gold medal as a GB Snowsport athlete in the halfpipe in Calgary, Canada.
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.
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.
Matt has been riding since he was 9 years old at his local dryslope (Bearsden Ski Club) as well as travelling across Europe with GB Snowsport to train.
He has come up through the ranks from GB Snowsport Junior Team to the Elite Junior Team and after a successful 2011/2012 season moved into the senior snowboard team allowing him to travel and train as part of the full team.
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.
Millie Knight burst onto the scene when she carried the British flag at the opening ceremony of the 2014 Sochi Winter Paralympics where she scored two top five results.
At the 2018 Paralympic Games, Millie won Great Britain’s first medal in PyeongChang when she was second in the downhill, and she went on to claim a further silver in Super G and a bronze in the slalom.
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.
Owen Pick took up snowboarding on a trip to Colorado. His first adaptive race came in 2014 and he quickly impressed, becoming part of the British team and picking up an eighth-place finish at the 2015 X Games.
Having never before stood on top of any podium, in March 2020 Owen won the Crystal Globe – the World Cup title – in the banked slalom.
Having competed in Para rowing at an international level, Scott made the switch to Nordic full time in March 2016. He 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.
Whilst travelling to work in June 2017, Callum was involved in very serious road traffic collision. The bone in his left leg had broken so badly that it had severed an artery, which resulted in an above knee amputation 5 days later.
Meeting GB Snowsport Para Nordic Athlete Scott Meenagh gave Callum the opportunity to join the Armed Forces Para Snowsports team and that’s where Callum’s Para Nordic skiing journey started.
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