Menna Fitzpatrick column: Downhill fears and Norway cheers

Para-skier Menna Fitzpatrick became Britain's most successful Winter Paralympian, along with guide Jen Kehoe, when they won gold, two silvers and a bronze at the 2018 Games in Pyeongchang. Now working with new guide Katie Guest, she is aiming for the 2022 Games in Beijing, which start on 4 March, where she will bid to add to her medal tally. This is her second BBC Sport column.

I'm still waiting to find out if I've been selected for the Winter Paralympics. Katie and I have been in good form but we have to see if it is enough. You can't take anything for granted!

We've just come back from the World Para Snow Sports Championships in Lillehammer in Norway, which didn't start the way I had hoped — but got better.

The first event was the downhill, which isn't my favourite and it's an event where historically I have struggled with nerves.

Not many visually-impaired athletes do the downhill, because it's crazy — you are going at speeds of around 70 miles per hour, getting instructions from your guide and literally pointing your skis down the slopes and hoping that everything will be fine.

But we do it because we love it, and you can't get those sort of feelings anywhere else — my visual impairment means I can't drive a car, for example.

It's like being on a rollercoaster but you're in control. At those speeds, anything can happen, but you have to stay as calm as possible and think fast and that is a great test of skill.

Downhill is also the event which is most difficult to train for because you need so many resources — the perfect slope, safety nets, a lot of staff around the course so you have eyes on you and you also have to close the piste off completely, which resorts are reluctant to do.

We always have official downhill training