How bid to impress wife’s dad led Warburton to Paralympics

Fred Warburton can remember the exact date of his first official ski race: 22 February, 2025.

Little more than a year later, he can call himself a Paralympian, having competed in his first event at the Milan-Cortina Winter Games.

Having previously dabbled in skiing as a tourist, the 31-year-old’s journey to the Games started out as a wish “just to impress” his Italian father-in-law.

It has led him to a seventh-place finish in Saturday’s downhill, racing with his guide James Hannan down the iconic Olympia delle Tofane piste, with more events to follow over the coming days.

“I would never have thought this would be possible five or six years ago, I didn’t know where my life was going, I didn’t have a clue on what was going to happen,” said Warburton, who was diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa, a degenerative eye condition, around seven years ago.

“I’m not much of a poker player, but you’ve got to play the hand you’re dealt.

“I originally started skiing more seriously just to impress my father-in-law. He ski raced back in the day.

“He’s watching back home and he’s happy, he’s coming out to watch the Super G and they’re all super proud of me.”

Warburton and Hannan only met about18 months ago but are grasping the opportunity of their maiden Paralympics with both hands.

Saturday’s event was their first ever downhill race, with their factored finishing time putting them 14.24 seconds behind winner Johannes Aigner of Austria, who took his second successive Paralympic downhill gold.

“What a rollercoaster ride,” said Warburton, who lives in Cervinia with his wife – with Hannan living in their spare room.

“I knew that I was losing my vision around seven years ago, and I decided to put my best foot forward and attack it, and it’s been an amazing journey, compressed and compacted into just over a year.

“The big goal for us is 2030 and building towards that and getting this experience, but it’s a story of grit and determination and it shows to anyone out there who is faced with some adversity, put your best foot forward and you can do anything.”

Fellow British athlete Neil Simpson and his guide and brother Andrew Simpson finished fourth, 2.67 seconds shy of the podium.

Scott Meenagh, competing in his third Winter Paralympics and one of Great Britain’s two flagbearers for Friday’s opening ceremony, finished 23rd in the men’s Para-biathlon seated sprint.

The 36-year-old Scot struggled on the shooting range during the 7.5km race, missing six shots at targets, and crossed the line almost five minutes behind winner Taras Rad – who clinched Ukraine’s first medal of the Milan-Cortina Games.

Meenagh is expected to take part in three other events at the Games, starting with the longer 12.5km individual event on Sunday.

“Tomorrow, the stakes are a lot higher – you have to be really clean on the shooting range because every miss means a minute extra on to your time, so you see a lot more people settling into their routine,” he told Channel 4.

The wheelchair curling mixed team event began in Saturday’s morning session and British quartet Hugh Nibloe, Stewart Pimblett, Austin McKenzie and Karen Aspey lost 9-2 to Slovakia in their first match of the 10-team round-robin phase.

The teams were closely matched until the fifth end, when Slovakia picked up a steal of four shots to move 7-2 in front.

Great Britain are back in action at 17:35 GMT, with the United States their second opponents of the day.

Meanwhile, in the mixed doubles event, British pair Jo Butterfield and Jason Kean take on world champions Japan at 13:35.