Great Britain to send team of 25 athletes to Paralympic Winter Games in Beijing

Great Britain will send a team of 25 athletes to the Paralympic Winter Games in Beijing.

ParalympicsGB has confirmed its biggest team since Lillehammer in 1994 after announcing 20 skiing and snowboard competitors alongside the five wheelchair curlers confirmed last month.

Alpine skiing features defending Paralympic Slalom champion Menna Fitzpatrick, who will be competing with new guides Katie Guest and Gary Smith.

Fitzpatrick, 23, said: “It’s a huge honour to be selected to represent ParalympicsGB again, and I can’t wait to get out there and get started.

“The last two years have been disrupted due to injury and the pandemic and, with uncertainty about whether the Games would go ahead, let alone the qualification process, to have a seat on that plane is amazing.

“I’m super excited to travel to China as part of such an incredible team of athletes representing Great Britain.”

Fitzpatrick will be joined at the Games, which begin on March 4, by Pyeongchang 2018 triple-medallist Millie Knight, who will be partnered again by Brett Wild.

Also named in the Visually Impaired class is Games debutant Neil Simpson, who is guided by his brother Andrew.

All three athletes enjoyed recent medal success at the 2021 World Championships in Lillehammer.

Shona Brownlee will also be making her Games debut in the Sitting Class after taking up the sport just four years ago, along with Alex Slegg and Dan Sheen, while James Whitley will compete in the Standing Class.

There are five Nordic skiers with Scott Meenagh, who became the first British athlete to compete for 20 years at Pyeongchang, joined by fellow military veteran Steve Arnold, Callum Deboys, Steve Thomas and ParalympicsGB’s first female Nordic athlete, Hope Gordon.

James Barnes-Miller