PyeongChang 2018: Day One Preview

The preparations are done, the athletes are ready and the path to PyeongChang has reached its last step – it’s time for the 2018 Winter Paralympic Games.

Barely hours remain until 17 ParalympicsGB athletes take to the snow and ice, competing in a record five sports – beating the previous best of four in both 1994 and 1998.

Para alpine skiing, Para snowboard, Wheelchair Curling and the two disciplines of Para Nordic skiing: cross country and biathlon will dominate the British interests over the next ten days, with three of those featuring in the opening day in PyeongChang.

The first event of the Games will see six Brits compete on the alpine skiing slopes, closely followed by ParalympicsGB’s first biathlete in two decades.

And a busy day one is rounded off on the ice as the British wheelchair curlers get their campaign underway in the afternoon.

Here’s what’s coming up on day one in PyeongChang.

The very first race of the Games will see plenty of British talent on display as Menna Fitzpatrick and guide Jennifer Kehoe, Millie Knight and guide Brett Wild compete in the women’s visually impaired downhill.

For Knight, this is a second appearance at the Games having gone to Sochi when aged just 15, looking to put that experience to good use in an event in which she is world champion.

That gold in Tarvisio last year was one of four medals she picked up on the global stage but, for the teenager at least, just being in PyeongChang alongside Wild is a major achievement.

Teammates Fitzpatrick and Kehoe have also delivered big across global snow, securing ten World Cup medals in a coming-of-age season leading up to the Games.

The most spectacular of the alpine disciplines, the pairs will give it their all in one run at the Jeongseon Alpine Centre to determine who will become Paralympic champion.

Meanwhile, four years older and four years stronger, James Whitley arrives in PyeongChang feeling like a different person to the one who made his debut at Sochi 2014.

Two top-15 places came his way then but, as he prepares to open up in the men’s standing downhill, there’s confidence that those experiences are just the foundation of what he can produce.

He’ll be joined on the start-line by Chris Lloyd, completing a Paralympic journey that began in 2011 when told he would never ski again.

But, having been a part of the Paralympic Inspiration Programme in Sochi, motivation has been higher than ever to defy the odds and compete at a Games.

They too will have one run down the exciting downhill course, getting underway slightly later in the day at 11.07.

09:30-09:45 (00:30-00:45 UK time) Alpine skiing: Women’s downhill, visually impaired – Menna Fitzpatrick and Jennifer Kehoe, Millie Knight and Brett Wild

11:07-11:50 (02:07-02:50 UK time) Alpine skiing: Men’s downhill, standing – Chris Lloyd, James Whitley

Not since 1998 has a Para Nordic skier represented ParalympicsGB at a Games.

But all that will change as Scott Meenagh begins his campaign in an historic moment for both he and the sport.

For just 18 months he has competed – spurred on by the Paralympic Inspiration Programme at Sochi 2014 – going to great lengths just to board the plane to PyeongChang.

His first race of six at these Games comes in the men’s sitting 7.5km biathlon event, a moment Meenagh knows he is already going to savour at the Alpensia Biathlon Centre.

10:25 (01:25 UK time) Biathlon: Men’s sitting 7.5km – Scott Meenagh

Day one in PyeongChang ends with the ParalympicsGB wheelchair curlers getting welcomed to the ice, facing off with world champions Norway in the afternoon session.

That’s one of 11 round-robin games skip Aileen Neilson’s rink are preparing for, joined by Angie Malone, Gregor Ewan, Hugh Nibloe and Bob McPherson in South Korea.

It’s the same quintet that battled to World Championship bronze in the same venue 12 months ago, with all but Nibloe part of the bronze medal-winning team from the Sochi Games.

A busy schedule will see the rink play twice a day after this opener, though Neilson is keen for them to get off to the best start possible.

14:35 (05:35 UK time) Wheelchair curling: Great Britain v Norway – Aileen Neilson, Angie Malone, Bob McPherson, Gregor Ewan, Hugh Nibloe