Ahead of the Para Alpine season starting next week with the NorAm in Panorama, we sat down with some of the Para Alpine squad members to talk about training, unwinding, and thoughts on the start of the season with Beijing 2022 on the horizon. 

Katie Guest – Para Alpine Guide

How did you keep yourself busy, fit, and entertained during the summer, any highlights?

“So, with lockdown on there wasn’t much we could really do, and I actually have a university degree to do so I spent quite a lot of time studying, and then in the time out I had I went to the park and bought a pair of rollerblades. Jo, my coach, said what a terrible idea that was, so they got sent back quite quickly but apart from that actually just getting out in the hills. I was really lucky to have my family around, I spent a lot of time with them.”

How’re you feeling about the season starting, particularly given that Beijing 2022 is on the horizon, are you doing anything different to prepare?

“I am quite new to the programme actually, so it’s all new at the minute. But training is going really well, I’ve built up a really good relationship with my athlete, Menna Fitzpatrick, and I’m super excited to be skiing again, it’s so good to be back out in the mountains. So, we’ll just keep on with what we’re working on and see how it goes.”

You’ve mentioned lockdown and covid, the team’s resilience has been pretty clear over the last season and year, is there anything in particular you’ve learnt from the last 18 months and are you going to take that into the coming season?

“I think over lockdown, it taught me that you’ve got to take opportunities when they come. So I think for any opportunity that comes, you’ve got to go with it and give it your best shot because they don’t come around that often. So, in terms of resilience, I would say keep going with what you’re doing and stay strong, keep carrying on enjoying skiing.”

Blake Williams – Para Alpine Coach

What do you do to unwind when you’re away on training camps and at competitions?

“Good question. So when I’m on my own, things like Netflix, Amazon Prime, watching a TV series, they’re brilliant for burning time. With the team, we like to play cards, monopoly deal, chess, those sorts of things. I prefer to spend the time with the team so that we build up a bit of a rapport.”

You coach a variety of different alpine disciplines, how to do prepare the athletes for each and do you have a preference and why?

“Yes, I have a preference. I prefer the Slalom and GS disciplines, the more technical disciplines. I have a personal interest in those. I like to play with the tactics and techniques and various different aspects of those disciplines, but certainly do train other disciplines as well, Super G and even Downhill. They take a little more thought on the safety side than slalom and GS do. I enjoy all of them, but I prefer Slalom and GS.”

The GB Snowsport Para Alpine team have had some new sponsors come onboard this season, what does their support mean to you and the team?

“It’s massive, it allows the team to exist and by this team existing, it can inspire the next generation of skiers.”

Adam Hall – Para Alpine Guide

What does it mean to you to represent Great Britain on the slopes?

“It’s an honour, it’s been a childhood dream my whole life and now it’s happened it’s, yeah, still a little bit surreal.”

What do you to unwind when you’re away on training camps and at competitions?

“My favourite thing to do is basically spend time with the team and we play games, card games and monopoly and even serious monopoly, so that’s hours and hours and one of my favourite things to do.”

You compete and guide in a variety of disciplines for Alpine, how do you prepare for each, do you have a preference and why?

“Preparing for each discipline is the hard bit about the job. You’ve got to stay fit, strong, and then mentally strong to different sessions and different days and go from slower speeds with Slalom in technical to Downhill which is fast. I am more of the technical sort of guy, built for smaller events.”

Shona Brownlee – New Para Alpine Squad Member (Sitski)

How did you keep yourself busy, fit, and entertained this summer, were there any highlights?

“I took up triathlon quite recently, so I spent a lot of time cycling and running, which helps with my ski fitness well.”

What does it mean to you to represent Great Britain on the slopes?

“It’s a huge honour, it’s come as a bit of a surprise to me. It was never anything I intended to do when I was growing up. Skiing is quite a new thing for me, but I’m just really enjoying it.”

We’ve seen a lot of examples over the past year of athletes and sports stars becoming more vocal about social issues that concern them and within snowsport we’ve seen the british governing bodies making steps forward on issues like diversity and inclusion within the sport. As an athlete what’s your take on that?

“I think within para sports, inclusion is quite a big thing anyway because there’s such a range of people with different impairments such as people with spinal cord injuries, visual impairments, physical impairments and they all compete on the same stage, so it’s a big thing.”

Neil Simpson – Para Alpine Skier

How’re you feeling about the season starting, particularly given that Beijing 2022 is on the horizon, are you doing anything different to prepare?

“No, just trying to get into training and working on the same technical focusses that we had and try and keep my mind off Beijing and just treat it as a normal race and normal series and just keep working away at it.”

What do you do to unwind when you’re away on training camps and competitions?

“I like to watch Netflix and YouTube and then also with the team, we play some card games like Monopoly Deal.”

GB Snowsport’s Para Alpine team have had some new sponsors come on board this season, what does their support mean to you and the team?

“It means a massive amount as it means we can actually come out here and train and it gives us that bit more to actually go and improve the quality of training and helps push us forward to achieving what we want to achieve in the competitions coming this season.”

Andrew Simpson – Para Alpine Guide

How did you keep yourself busy, fit and entertained during the summer, any highlights to mention?

“Not much changed during the summer really, just the usual, training in the gym regularly, trying to spend time with family when I can, but apart from that nothing different.”

We’ve seen a lot of examples over the past year of athletes and sports stars becoming more vocal about social issues that concern them and within snowsport we’ve seen the British governing bodies making steps forward on issues like diversity and inclusion within the sport. As an athlete what’s your take on that?

“I think within para snowsports there’s a lot of diversity going on anyway, but I think it’s definitely a big issue within the wider population too.”

What does it mean to you to represent Great Britain on the slopes?

“It’s a huge honour, I mean myself and Neil have been skiing together from a young age, so to be able to get right to the top and represent the country is brilliant.”