‘Tragic beauty’ as Zyw battles MND to make Winter Paralympics history

Edinburgh’s Davy Zyw has spoken of “the tragic beauty” of becoming what is believed to be the first snowsport athlete with motor neurone disease (MND) to compete at the Winter Paralympics.

The 38-year-old snowboarder has just been confirmed in the Paralympics GB squad to compete at the Milan-Cortina Games, which start on 6 March.

In a video posted by Team GB on Instagram, Zyw explains that he was diagnosed with the incurable life-shortening disease in 2018 at the age of 30.

“Essentially, I was told I had two or three years to live,” Zyw said. “I’m seven years on and I’ve just fought my way up the ladder to get on the team at the Paralympics.

Wine merchant Zyw explained that injury denied him the able-bodied snowboarding career he had craved since taking up the sport at the dry slope in the north of Edinburgh.

“I’ve been a snowboarder all my life,” he said. “Me and my twin brother, we started on a Hillend dry slope when we were 12 or 13.

“I’ve been obsessed with snowboarding my entire life. A knee injury took me away from the slopes and into a career in wine.

“But the fact my diagnosis of being with an incurable degenerative neurological condition has brought me back to my childhood dream of being a snowboarder.”

Zyw only decided to put himself forward for the Games in winter 2024 and has financed competing through crowdfunding and support of his employer.

“There’s like a tragic beauty in this situation,” he added.

“Above all, what I love about being on my board, being on the slopes, being in that competition mind zone is, you know, the disability, the daily challenges of MND, of living with this disease are gone and there’s so much freedom in there.

“When I’m dropping in, when I’m strapping, when I’m in the starting gate, MND is, it might be the reason I’m there, but it couldn’t be further removed from what I’m thinking about in that moment.