Menna Fitzpatrick eager to cement status as Britain’s greatest Winter Paralympian

The six-time Paralympic medallist wrapped up her Beijing campaign on Saturday with a disappointing fourth-place finish in the slalom

The six-time Paralympic medallist wrapped up her Beijing campaign on Saturday (PA Media)

Menna Fitzpatrick says the prospect of a Games on ‘home’ Italian snow is intensifying her desire to cement her status as Britain’s greatest Winter Paralympian.

The six-time Paralympic medallist, 23, wrapped up her Beijing campaign on Saturday with a disappointing fourth-place finish in the slalom.

Fitzpatrick came into the event as defending champion from PyeongChang but after winning Super-G silver and Super Combined bronze earlier this week, was unable to add to her tally in a boiling Beijing.

The Macclesfield star sits two medals clear of Jade Etherington as Britain’s greatest Winter Paralympic athlete and believes there’s no better place than Milan-Cortina 2026 to further extend her hegemony.

Fitzpatrick said: “It’s amazing to have the record and I’m super, super proud of that. It’s not something I go out there to achieve – it’s amazing to have that title but it’s not a focal point and I just go out there to ski my best.

“I’m definitely going to try [to get to 2026] – I’ll get in the gym, get some really good training in over the next four years and see what happens.

“It will be nicer to have something closer to home and have family and friends there – it will pretty much be home snow as we train a lot in Europe. I’ve just got to get the fire in the belly and carry on training hard.”

Fitzpatrick has enjoyed a solid if not spectacular week in China as she failed to emulate her thrilling haul of four medals scooped at PyeongChang 2018.

Her previous Super-G bronze was improved into a silver, her Super Combined silver was lowered to a bronze while elsewhere, Fitzpatrick was unable to snatch a slalom podium and also failed to fire in the giant slalom, where she came second in Korea.

A mistake on the first run in Saturday’s slalom proved fatal as she left herself with too much to do in the second and Austrian sisters Veronika and Barbara Aigner sped to gold and silver.

Slovakian star Alexandra Rexova was third as Fitzpatrick missed out on a medal but just 0.55s.

Fitzpatrick, who competed with new guide Gary Smith at these Games after usual partner Katie Guest tested positive for Covid-19, added: “The whole experience has just been amazing.

“We had a really good start to the week, some great speed competition and got a lot stronger going into the technical events.

“Sadly, we just missed out on a podium today, but we did some great skiing and overall it’s been amazing.

“We went out, enjoyed it and gave it a go but I made a mistake on first run. We made up for it on the second but it wasn’t quite enough.

“I’ll have a bit of a break over the next few months then reassess.

“There are lots of things up in the air at the moment with what happens next, so we’ll take it as it comes and start training in the gym again soon.”

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