Winter Paralympics: Menna Fitzpatrick and Millie Knight named among GB team

Defending Paralympic champion Menna Fitzpatrick and fellow Pyeongchang medallist Millie Knight have been named in a 20-strong Great Britain ski and snowboard team for the Beijing Games.

Fitzpatrick, who won slalom gold four years ago, will be competing with new guide Katie Guest in the visually-impaired events.

Knight, who won two silvers and a bronze, will again be guided by Brett Wild.

The Games will run from 4-13 March.

The 20 athletes, who will compete in alpine skiing, Nordic skiing and snowboard, join the five GB wheelchair curlers who were announced in January.

It means the British team will be the largest at a winter Games since Lillehammer in 1994 when 23 athletes competed.

On the ski slopes, Fitzpatrick and Knight will be joined by fellow world medallists Neil Simpson, who is guided by his older brother Andrew, and sit-skier Shona Brownlee, who are both making their debuts.

Fellow sit-skiers Dan Sheen and Alex Slegg are also in the team while James Whitley, who competes in the standing events, will be taking part in his third Games.

«It's a huge honour to be selected to represent ParalympicsGB again, and I can't wait to get out there and get started,» said Fitzpatrick, who won slalom gold at last month's World Championships in Norway.

Knight has recovered from a number of concussions, including a crash in February 2021 which left her struggling both physically and mentally, but her and Wild go to Beijing having won super combined gold in Norway.

«To become world champions for the first time in five years was an incredible feeling,» she told BBC Sport.

«Our performances pre-Christmas weren't at the level we wanted and the standard of the sport and the level of the girls we are competing against has significantly improved,