Canterbury skier Millie Knight 'amazed' to represent ParalympicsGB for third successive Winter Games after self-doubt and injuries hindered her preparations

Millie Knight battled back from fearing she would never ski again to secure her place at a third Winter Paralympic Games.

Knight, from Canterbury, became the youngest athlete to represent ParalympicsGB at a Winter Games in Sochi in aged 15 before her hat-trick of alpine skiing medals - two silvers and one bronze - in PyeongChang.

Those thrilling South Korean heroics looked to lay the foundations for a medal-bulging Paralympic career, but a series of concussions since - including one serious incident in Leogang, Austria, last February - have derailed her preparations for Beijing.

The 23-year-old admits she may never be able to banish those demons but is looking forward to her third Games in China.

“It’s amazing considering the struggles, injuries and challenges that we’ve had. I’m pretty proud,” said former King’s School student Knight, one of more than 1,000 athletes able to train full-time thanks to National Lottery funding.

“It’s taken a lot of determination - I still can’t really believe that I’m going to my third Games, considering the place where my head was at six months ago.

“I genuinely thought ‘How can I even put skis back on, how can I do it when I know I’ve got so much fear these days?’.

“There were lots of times during the recovery when I questioned whether I was going to recover properly.

“Would I get back to 100% Millie the athlete, and even Millie the person? Am I going to get back to the level that I was at? Am I going to be way behind?

“I still don’t think I’m the same skier as I was in 2017 and 2018. After the crashes, I think a switch changed in my head that I don’t believe will ever be able to be switched back because I now have the fear that I previously didn’t have.

“It just creeps in like a bad