Gary Smith (Guide)

Gary Smith first tried skiing as part of an RAF skiing expedition in 2002 in Les Arcs, France. He quickly became hooked and, within four years, he was racing for the RAF squad.

Following skier Charlotte Evans’ retirement, Gary began guiding for Paralympic champion Kelly Gallagher, working as a full-time athlete with support from the Royal Air Force.

Soon after pairing up, the duo claimed a gold, silver and two bronze medals at the IPC World Cup Finals in Aspen, Colorado in March 2016, though they missed the 2017 World Championships after Kelly sustained a significant injury in training.

Gary and Kelly competed together at the PyeongChang 2018 Paralympic Winter Games with a fifth-place finish in the giant slalom their best result on the slopes of Jeongseon.

Following Kelly’s retirement in 2021, Gary was set to travel to the Beijing 2022 Paralympic Winter Games as one of four guides with a focus on the downhill events. However, when guide Katie Guest was unable to travel to China after contracting COVID, Gary teamed up with vision impaired skiier Menna Fitzpatrick.

Together the pair won Super-G silver and Super Combined bronze on the slopes of Yanqing as Menna became the most decorated British Winter Paralympian in history with an overall tally of six medals from PyeongChang and Beijing.

2022 Beijing Paralympic Games

• Super-G: silver
• Super Combined: bronze

2018 PyeongChang Paralympic Games

• Super-G: 8th
• Super combined: 7th
• Giant slalom: 5th
• Slalom: 6th