Millie Knight admits Paralympic gold would be ’emotional’ but accepts difficulty

Visually-impaired skier Millie Knight admits it would be “extremely emotional” to complete her Paralympic medal collection with gold in Beijing but is keen to curb expectation.

Knight, who won two silvers and a bronze in PyeongChang in 2018, was on Tuesday selected for her third successive Games after fearing repeated concussions may end her career.

The 23-year-old underlined her mental resilience in January by becoming super combined world champion in Lillehammer, Norway, in addition to taking bronze in the super-G event.

While she has taken confidence from those successes, Kent-born Knight accepts she faces a tough task next month when she goes for glory in each of the five Paralympic alpine events alongside guide Brett Wild.

“Obviously to complete the set would be extremely emotional,” she told the PA news agency. “We have every title at the moment, except for Paralympic champions.

“I don’t believe that this is something that we will achieve in these Games – the standard of the field has increased 10-fold and there are some incredibly talented girls out there.

“I made the conscious decision a couple of months ago to take the pressure off myself by not aiming for a medal target and that’s actually released a lot of space in my mind to actually focus on things that I can control and that are important, like my fitness and my strength.

There was a lot of time when I actually thought I wasn't going to get better and I wasn't ever going to get my skis back on because I just thought, 'I think this fear is going to rule me', and, well, I didn't let it.- Millie Knight on repeated concussions

“I’m in a much better position now than I would be if I hadn’t won those (World Championship) medals and I’m very grateful that we did