Simpson and Poth are Britain’s last hope for a first Paralympics gold medal

Great Britain head into today’s final day of the Winter Paralympics still waiting for their first gold in what will almost certainly be the team’s worst performance at the event for 16 years.

Only one silver so far leaves Britain well behind the last three Games, when they won 19 medals overall, including at least one gold each time. Although in the four Paralympics before that, going back to 1998, Britain won only one medal in total.

So today all eyes will be on skier Neil Simpson, who won Britain’s silver medal in the alpine combined event on Tuesday. Simpson, also the winner of GB’s only gold in Beijing four years ago in the visually impaired men’s Super-G, had to contend with a change of guide for this year’s Games after his brother Andrew suffered a broken leg.

Now with Rob Poth by his side, Simpson finished fourth in both the men’s downhill and the Super-G before the alpine combined event, which combines Super-G and slalom. They will now look to go one better today in the standalone slalom event – where they will be joined by compatriots Sam Cozens and his guide Adam Hall – after failing to finish in the giant slalom.

The wheelchair curling was one of the main events of the opening few days, with Jason Kean and Jo Butterfield – the latter of whom won gold in the F51 women’s club throw at the 2016 Summer Paralympics – putting themselves in contention to reach the semi-finals of the mixed doubles. However, after the pair won three of their first five matches and needed just one win from their final two, they lost to both China and Italy to suffer an agonising elimination.

Menna Fitzpatrick, Britain’s most successful Winter Paralympian of all time in terms of overall medals with six, came sixth in the women’s Super-G – no mean feat considering that she has suffered a broken leg and an ACL injury in the last 18 months. The 27-year-old, along with guide Katie Guest, also finished sixth in the giant slalom and came ninth in the alpine combined, before rounding off her Games with fifth in the slalom.

Another amazing story on snow is that of Fred Warburton, who, having been diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa about seven years ago, finished seventh in last weekend’s men’s downhill event along with guide James Hannan, despite having only participated in his first competitive skiing event in February 2025 in a bid to impress his Italian father-in-law.

Snowboarder Davy Zyw is blazing a trail for people with motor neurone disease after becoming the first athlete from any country with the condition known to have competed at a Winter Paralympics.

“The pride, the positivity, the memories, the strength, the resilience I’ll take from this Paralympic experience is going to fortify the rest of my life,” the 38-year-old Scot, given 18 months to live when diagnosed at the age of 30, told BBC Sport.

“When I’m unable to snowboard, looking back at my runs from the Paralympic Games when I turned up – despite my injuries and my disease – is something I’ll hold on to.”

Nina Sparks also made history as Britain’s first female Paralympic snowboarder following a multiple sclerosis diagnosis in 2021. It is a sport that Sparks has described as “the closest thing you can get to flying”, and she acquitted herself well in the women’s banked slalom SB-LL2 event, finishing 10th.

On the final weekend of the Games, Hester Poole, whose guide dog Pickle has become Britain’s 26th team member, was unfortunately disqualified in the women’s visually impaired slalom along with guide Ali Hall.

Photograph by Tom Weller/Getty Images