With the lead up to the 2026 Paralympic Winter Games in Cortina d’Ampezzo coming up in February all eyes will be focused on Britian’s, and the world’s most decorated Paralympian skier, Menna Fitzpartick, whose name has now become synonymous with the Winter Paralympics.
Menna was born in 1998 with no vision in her right eye and only about 5% vision in her left eye. Determined not to be left or for that matter regarded as disadvantaged, Menna’s parent were keen for their daughter to have as normal a childhood as possible. Fortunately both are keen skiers and first took Menna skiing at the age of five attaching a rope to her as she skied alongside her parents. It was during those carefree days that Menna grew to love skiing and despite her visual difficulties became a brave and fearless skier and nothing was going to come between her and the sport she loved.
Ironically Menna’s feats at a Paralympian skier first caught my imagination when I watched the 2022 Winter Paralympics on television but what interested me in particular was the roll her guide, Katie Guest played as she and guide raced faultlessly in tandem at up to sixty miles an hour. The pair appeared to be attached by an invisible umbilical cord with total trust between the two skiers.
Fortunately this all happened the same year I fulfilled a bucket list item – to ski a glacier in the early morning followed by a round of golf in the afternoon. As it happened the Swiss tourist office came my rescue and recommended going to Edelberg where Switzerland’s highest Glacier, the Titlist can be found and nearby, an eighteen hole golf course.
The day started with sunny skies at eight in the morning when we (a Finnish journalist with the same bucket list) took the first cable car up to the top of the glacier at around 8 in the morning. However, the whole adventure could well have ended in tears if hadn’t remembered watching Menna and her guide racing during the Winter Paralympics. The day started perfectly, good snow conditions and clear blue skies – what more could I have asked for only after skiing for about ten minutes, a huge white cloud drifted up from the valley and descended on the glacier leaving us in a total white out, we could barely see our ski tips it was that bad. For several minutes we tried to ski in these conditions but were constantly forced to stop and start as we desperately tried to focus on following our guide but worryingly we made little progress. After a couple of near misses, I had that light bulb moment and asked our guide to yell out instructions as guides are tasked to for blind skiers in the winter Paralympics. He understood immediately and from that moment onwards yelled instructions in the same why guides do for blind Paralympians. In no time we were back into a rhythm albeit skiing slower but with more confidence despite the lack of visibility and arrived at the bottom of the glacier with plenty to time for our planned round of golf.
I had always wanted to tell Menna this story but never had the chance that is until quite recently when she and her Paralympian guide Kate Guest were invited to host an evening at the Pro-Feet shop in Fulham Road. South West London with TV presenter Chemmy Alcott. I was intrigued to find out more about and went along to listen to their side of the story. As it turned out I learnt a lot more about blind skiing from and Kate as they articulately answered questions posed by Chemmy which revealed the surprising trust Menna puts into her guide’s instructions as she competes in Giant Salom and downhill races at up to 60 miles an hour – something I even rarely do these days.
This article is from the sports and travel writer April Tod.
Photo Credit: ParalympicsGB
