Ellen Westerlund from Örnsköldsvik, who attends a ski high school in Lycksele, finished fifth in the ten-kilometer race at the Paralympics in Milan. She has a cerebral palsy injury that affects her balance and movement ability on her right side, and she got sick during the championship. She will participate in the Swedish Championship competitions in Umeå on Saturday.
Meg Gustafson, a 16-year-old visually impaired Para ski racer, relies on her brother Spenser to guide her through the course at the Milan Cortina Games. She and Spenser Gustafson finished fifth in the giant slalom in the visually impaired classification on Thursday, and they will close out their Paralympics with a slalom on Saturday. Meg Gustafson was sixth in the downhill, seventh in the Alpine combined, and eighth in the super-G. She was born with a genetic disorder that affected the ligaments in her eyes and gives her tunnel vision, had a fully detached retina at 12 requiring four surgeries and another two operations on the other eye, and has seven degrees of vision.
Diagnosed in March, classified to compete internationally in November.
Hester Poole, an 18-year-old Para alpine skier, fell at the top of her run in the women’s giant slalom VI at her first Paralympic Games, and she is guided by Ali Hall. She received an offer to study English Literature at the University of Cambridge in January and news of her Paralympic selection a month ago. Hester Poole was born with rare eye disease Leber congenital amaurosis and uses a guide dog, and she still has the slalom event to come on Saturday.
Menna Fitzpatrick finished sixth in the women’s giant slalom VI event alongside guide Katie Guest. She is 27 years old and ParalympicsGB’s most decorated Winter Paralympian, having missed out on the past two seasons of action through injury. Menna Fitzpatrick competes in a knee brace after suffering an ACL injury in December 2025. According to reports, she finished fifth in the women's visually impaired slalom at the Milan-Cortina Winter Paralympics and plans to aim for the 2030 Paralympics in France.
It was a very quick upwards trajectory to being an athlete.
According to sources, Nina Sparks was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in March 2021 and was classified to compete internationally in November 2021, becoming Great Britain's first female Paralympic snowboarder at the Winter Paralympics. It is reported that she first noticed symptoms of MS in November 2020, including numbness in her right foot that spread. Sources indicate Nina Sparks is a four-time World Cup and two-time World Championship medallist across the LL2 snowboarding events, uses an orthotic to walk and competes with an ankle foot orthosis in her boot due to her MS, and needs to nap every day without fail due to her MS. She will compete in the women's LL2 banked slalom on 14 March.
According to reports, Cécile Hernandez is a 51-year-old French snowboarder and the flag bearer for France at the Milan-Cortina Paralympics, who has multiple sclerosis. Sources indicate she won gold in snowboard cross at the last Paralympics and silver medals in 2014 and 2018, and she will defend her title in the SB-LL1 category at Milan-Cortina. It is reported that Austrian Veronika Aigner won her fourth gold of the Games in the women's visually impaired slalom.
It's taken me a while to adjust to the fact that it's quite a big thing.
According to sources, a German athlete, likely Marchand, will have a performance test in Para rowing on 7 April after her Winter Paralympics appearance as a cross-country skier, and she will have the first selection for the World Championships on 13 May.
I feel like I'm just me, doing my thing, because I love it.
I woke up and had a numb right foot. That spread up my right leg and then my left leg, and from about mid-November [2020] I got to the point where I couldn't feel temperature very well.
I just thought 'let's make something of this'. I always knew about the Paralympics, and I knew about Kadeena Cox, a very famous British Paralympian with MS.
I was like 'she's got MS and if I've got MS, I wonder if I can pursue Para-snowboarding?'. I went from there, and here I am now.
The biggest thing for me is that I now need to nap, every day, without fail.
We come in from the mountain and I'm straight to bed.
Some days, I may be able to do five runs, some days I may be able to do 25 runs, maybe the next day I need an extra day off because I'm super tired. Quality over quantity, is what one of my coaches says a lot.
In our sport, a big thing is just showing up. We often have really small numbers in our competitions, just