Going for Gold: A Para Snowsport Journey

Many young people who compete in sports dream of making it to the big stage; to have crowds of supporters cheering them on as they reach their goal and do themselves, and their family, proud. That winning feeling brings out the emotion like never before, which is why so many of those individuals aim to make it to the very top. However, for one young sportswoman called Millie Knight, this dream became a reality. Faced with terrifying obstacles since her childhood, Millie overcame the odds to become one of Britain’s most successful Para Skiers currently competing on the world stage.

Millie was left with just 5% of her vision by the time she was six years old, but she did not let that hinder her love for sport. She continued to display real enthusiasm for skiing from a young age and would be accompanied by her mother, Suzanne, on trips to ski slopes across Europe. Suzanne remains an inspirational figure in Millie’s life, both on and off the slopes. After years of leisurely skiing trips, Millie remembers the moment her talents would be taken to the next level:

“My family loved skiing and, just because I lost my sight, did not mean I could not go skiing. My mum took me on as many ski trips as possible after that because I loved it so much.

“It is all bit of a blur now, but when I was 12 my mum got in touch with Disability Snowsport UK (DSUK) who at the time ran the GB team. I had a training session with them in an indoor dome and they invited me to a camp out in Austria, where at the end of it, they invited me to join the team”.

Things were only just getting started for the 21-year-old, as she also experienced the atmosphere of the Paralympic Games without having even competed yet:

“In 2012, I was fortunate enough to go the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games in London, as a spectator. It was an extremely poignant time in my life, as it was the first time that I had seen the grandeur of such an event like this, celebrating the extraordinary talent of athletes with disabilities.

“I remember watching the athletes come out, carrying their national flags, and thinking, ‘Wow, I want to be doing that!’”.

London 2012 would become an inspirational milestone which would mark the beginning of her competitive skiing career, and it was not long before she would fulfil her dream of becoming a member Team GB.

Millie represented her country at the 2014 Paralympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, at the age of just 15. Not only that, she became the youngest British athlete to compete at a Winter Paralympics when she took to the slopes for the Slalom and Giant Slalom races. She was also chosen to bare the flag of Great Britain at the opening ceremony:

“When I was selected to carry the GB flag at the opening ceremony in Sochi 2014, it was an insane and incredibly special moment. Walking out into a stadium of 55,000 people all cheering was like nothing else”.

Millie competing in Sochi, Russia, in 2014

On top of this, she was named the 2014 Woman of the Year in her birthplace of Canterbury.

After competing in Sochi, Millie would reach another important point in her young career as she found new, and current, skiing guide Brett Wild.

She said: “Meeting Brett has been the best thing that has happened to my skiing career. Before we met in 2016, I had had nine different guides, who for one reason or another had not worked out.

“To finally find someone with not only the ski skills, knowledge, and experience, but someone who I actually got on well with and who was available to guide me was amazing”.

“Over the years we have spent more and more time together, both on and off the snow. This has really helped our relationship and our skiing. We have been able to train more and more on snow as well as experiencing many ups and downs that naturally strengthen our bond”.

Brett, a Royal Navy submariner, started skiing when he was three years old; both of his parents are former ski instructors, with his father once managing the Glasgow Ski Centre.

He said: “At the age of 10, I started racing for Glasgow skiing. Then, at 15, I joined the Scottish Junior Development squad and made it into the Scottish National Team for a year before I started University. I then joined the Royal Navy in 2013 and have been skiing for them since”.

The 27-year-old recalls the moment he met Millie, igniting a lasting and successful partnership:

“I was in France racing at the Royal Navy Ski Championships when I received an email asking if I wanted to do a trial period with a visually impaired skier. Luckily, my submarine was at sea and I was not due to fly out to join it for a couple of months. I was granted leave to go and do the trial; it went extremely well.

“I was then asked to be Millie’s full time guide up until the 2022 Paralympic Games. The British Team officially requested this from the Royal Navy, and they granted me the three years Elite Athlete Status. It was a big decision as I knew this would have an impact on my career, but I could not let such a fantastic opportunity pass me by”.

The pair had been skiing together for just two weeks before tasting success for the first time at the 2016 World Cup finals in Aspen, clinching three gold medals for the Super G, Super G 2 and Downhill 2; they also picked up two silver and two bronze medals at the tournament.

This provided a glimpse into what has become a memorable partnership. The pair built on their success in Aspen by clinching gold at various top competitions in Austria and Canada, before becoming Britain’s first Snowsport champions at the 2017 World Cup in Italy.

Unfortunately, after their win in Italy, Millie crashed into a barrier going at a speed of 70mph; she suffered a concussion which ruled her out for a considerable period.

The accident came at a time when the pair should have been preparing for the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Paralympic Games, so they had little time to prepare for what would be their biggest challenge yet. Brett knew how much pressure they faced going into the competition:

“We won just one bronze medal in the year running-up to the Paralympics. Due to our success the previous year, Millie was labelled the “golden girl” and “Britain’s best chance of a gold medal”. This put a lot of pressure on us as a partnership when we knew we were not skiing at our best. I believe that working together through this extremely hard time strengthened our partnership”.

The competition in PyeongChang rolled around, with Millie and Brett securing Paralympic GB’s first medal of the tournament as they clinched silver in the Women’s Downhill race. They followed this up by securing two further medals at the games: silver for the Super-G and bronze for the Slalom.

Millie and Brett after securing two silver medals at the PyeongChang Winter Paralympic Games

They left the tournament with their heads held high after a tough year off the slopes and returned home to the support of family and friends. Their performance at the competition shows the strength and importance of their relationship, both on and off the slopes.

The pair are not at all finished yet. Millie knows she has experienced the life not every 21-year-old has, but is hungry to achieve more:

“Skiing is all I that I have known. I spent my teenage years with Team GB, so for me there was never a time where I was ‘a kid’ as such, I had to grow up quickly and embrace the life of a professional athlete. In paraskiing there are no age categories, so from 13 years old I was competing against people who were double - if not triple - my age. I feel this has given me such a great advantage and has enabled me to be the athlete that I am today.

“Brett and I have won many titles: World Champions, World Cup Champions and British Champions. However, we are still missing Paralympic gold. This is really our goal for the 2022 Paralympic Games, and we are working hard to try and achieve that”.