Millie Knight gets Paralympic Winter Games call-up

TEENAGER AND HER GUIDE OFF TO SOUTH KOREA

Millie Knight has been selected to represent Paralympics GB at the winter Paralympic Games in South Korea later this year. The visually impaired skier from Canterbury, with her guide Brett Wild, is one of nine athletes chosen to represent her country at ski and snowboard events at Pyeongchang. Knight has enjoyed a phenomenal 12 months winning downhill gold at the Para-alpine skiing championships last January, which was the first ever gold for a British para-skier. She also won silver medals in the giant slalom, slalom and super-combined events. She told KMTV: “I was quite shocked because we have not had a great start to our season and the races had not gone as we would have liked to. “To get selected was great as there we only have two spots for three athletes. Now that we are selected the pressure is off a little bit now.” It is a hectic schedule now for the 18-year-old who is currently in Switzerland for World Cup races before she heads to Pyeongchang when the winter Paralympics start in March. She added: “I’m out in Switzerland at the moment and then move to another place in Switzerland for four World Cup races. “We move to France and have another five races then another training camp. We then fly out to South Korea on February 23.” This will be her second Paralympic Games after she competed at Sochi four years ago when she was also given the honour of carrying the British flag during the opening ceremony. Knight also made it into the top three for BBC’S Young Sports Personality of the Year 2017, which was held in December. She was nominated along with Manchester City’s Phil Foden and gymnast Ellie Downie but lost out to the footballer.

Picture: Jason Dodd Millie Knight has been selected for the GB squad for the Paralympics in South Korea