‘Devastated’ curlers miss out on semi-finals on tough day for GB

Great Britain’s joyless start to the Winter Paralympics continued as wheelchair curlers Jo Butterfield and Jason Kean let slip their grasp on the mixed doubles semi-finals and missed out on qualifying.

It proved a tough day for the British team, after Para-alpine skier Neil Simpson missed out on defending his super G title with his second fourth-place finish of the Games.

On Saturday, Butterfield and Kean were joint second in the table and looked in a strong position to progress, knowing just one win from their final two games would likely be enough.

They were always the underdogs going into Sunday’s tie against unbeaten China, although they led 5-1 after three ends before a change in tactics proved their undoing.

Monday’s opponents Italy, meanwhile, were bottom of the standings having won just one game and had no hope of qualifying.

But they were gifted a 4-0 lead in the opening end and, backed by a loud partisan crowd in Cortina, opened up that advantage to 10-4 after six ends.

“We’re gutted, we’re devastated,” said Butterfield, who was bidding to become the first British athlete to win gold at both the summer and winter Paralympics after her club throw gold at Rio 2016.

“We came here with a plan and we didn’t quite execute it. The one thing I’ll say is that I’m really proud of [Kean] and I’m proud of us.

“We left it all out there, absolutely everything, and we just fell short at the end. It hurts.”

Kean, making his Paralympic debut, added: “At 10-4 down in the sixth end, I didn’t think it was possible to get to an extra end but we somehow managed to dig it out.

In the mixed team event, Great Britain’s semi-final chances were severely dented by two defeats on Monday.

There was a reshuffle to the British team after two ends of their 7-6 loss to South Korea during the morning session, with alternate Graeme Stewart replacing Hugh Nibloe and Stewart Pimblett taking on skip duties.

They trailed 3-0 at that stage and although they recovered to lead, South Korea – with the advantage of the hammer in the final end – got the two they required to secure victory.

Later, Nibloe returned to the four-player line-up as skip against Sweden, who stole one shot against the hammer in the final end for a 6-5 win.

Four years ago in Beijing, Simpson and his brother and guide Andrew won the nation’s only gold of the Games in the visually impaired super G, a victory that cemented him as the first British man to win gold at a Winter Paralympics.

This time around, Simpson was led by Rob Poth after a late switch of guide, but after struggling on the mid-section of the Tofane piste, the British pair crossed the finish line 1.1 seconds shy of a podium finish.

“There was some good skiing, so I’m pretty proud. Unfortunately there were just a couple of mistakes,” said 23-year-old Simpson, who also finished fourth in Saturday’s downhill.

“The section where there was a bit more air time and jumps, I just didn’t quite have the line there, so that just meant I didn’t have the speed over the flat.”

Austria’s Johannes Aigner won gold for his second Paralympic title of the Games, having also won the downhill.

Simpson’s British team-mate Fred Warburton placed 12th with his guide James Hannan after a run he described as a “bit of a battle”.

Both British pairs will compete in a further three events at the Milan-Cortina Games.

Those start with Tuesday’s alpine combined – an event in which skiers race both a super G and slalom course.

Earlier, Menna Fitzpatrick – Britain’s most decorated Winter Paralympian with six medals – made her first appearance at these Games with a sixth-place finish in the women’s visually impaired super G.

Fitzpatrick has endured a torrid build-up over the past 18 months, having broken her leg at the end of 2024 before sustaining an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury in training in December.

She opted to avoid surgery in a bid to reach the Games, and after training runs on the course last week, the 27-year-old and her guide Katie Guest chose to skip Saturday’s downhill event in order to focus on her more preferred events.

In the super G, an event in which Fitzpatrick won silver and bronze at the past two Games, the British duo finished in one minute 25.52 seconds, more than 10 seconds behind Italy’s Chiara Mazzel, who won gold for the hosts.

“It was a step up from our training runs,” said Fitzpatrick.

“I managed to let the skis run a bit more, which is a step in the right direction for sure. I was way more confident and really enjoyed the course.

“It’s so lovely to actually be out here after the last two seasons of being injured. I had a lot of fun and I’ve got great confidence in the knee itself, just the [other] girls are skiing really well and they’re pushing the competition, so we’ll slowly get closer.