Knight admits winning second silver feels ‘crazy’
British teenager Millie Knight described winning her second silver in Pyeongchang as “crazy” last night. Knight followed up her second place in the women’s downhill a day earlier with a superb run in the VI super-g at the Winter Olympics.
“If you’d said I would have two medals in two days at the Paralympics I would have said you are crazy,” said the visually impaired 19-year-old, who competes with Brett Wild as her guide.
“This time four years ago I was sat in the crowd watching Kelly [Gallagher] win gold and now I’ve made the podium myself.
“I can’t quite believe this has happened again. I was really relaxed – I think it [my first medal] took a lot of pressure off, so it meant I slept really well and was in a great place to race.”
Her success completed a remarkable comeback for Knight, who had sustained concussion during a terrifying 70mph crash on the same course in Pyeongchang back in February.
She was pipped to gold by Slovakia’s Henrieta Farkasova, who landed her seventh Paralympic title alongside guide Natalia Subrtova in a time of 1 min 30.17 sec, more than three seconds quicker than Knight.
There was more medal success for Great Britain as Knight’s teammate Menna Fitzpatrick recovered from her failure to finish in the downhill by taking bronze with guide Jennifer Kehoe. The Macclesfield 20-year-old had crashed early in her first run on the downhill course but was able to put that behind her and ski down the rest of the course.
Kehoe said: “After the downhill, we just had a cup of tea and a chat with our sports psychologist, who just helped us to think about all of the positives that we have had from this season and the success that we have had.
“It was about knowing we can do it and just getting on the hill and doing it and not trying to do anything clever or special.”
Defending champion Kelly Gallagher, from Bangor, finished in eighth place along with her guide Gary Smith. Gallagher, who was a late admission to the British squad after a number of seasons affected by injury, said: “I just need to ski like I’ve got nothing to lose and try to channel that.
“There’s three more races and we have a lot to work on. We’re here though and a few months ago I was worried at the thought of even inspecting a super-g course.”