Jo Butterfield

A Paralympic gold medallist in Para athletics, Jo made the transition from summer to winter sports in 2022. Milano Cortina 2026 will be her first Paralympic Winter Games.

A former army civil servant, Jo first tried her hand at wheelchair rugby before transitioning to athletics with immediate success. In 2014 on her international debut, the Glasgow-based athlete won European club throw gold, which was followed by world gold just over 12 months later.

Jo’s meteoric rise continued as she retained her European crown and also obliterated the world record with a mark of 22.75m in Grosseto, Italy, in 2016.

At the Paralympic Games in Rio, she won gold in the F51 club throw with yet another world record - despite nursing a shoulder injury.

But with injury problems continuing the following year, she finished in fourth place at the London 2017 World Championships.

Jo added two more silver medals to her collection, first at the 2018 European Championships and then just over a year later at the 2019 World Championships in Dubai.

In August 2022, Jo announced her switch to the winter sport of wheelchair curling and in her first international event at the 2023 World Championships in Canada, she helped secure a bronze medal for Scotland in a 7-4 victory over Sweden.

Jo was then forced to take time out from competition after receiving a breast cancer diagnosis in the summer of 2023, receiving successful treatment over the course of a number of months. Returning to action in time for the home World Championships in March 2025, Jo was part of the Scotland mixed team that finished seventh, securing a qualification slot for ParalympicsGB at the 2026 Milano Cortina Paralympic Winter Games in the process. She will compete in the mixed doubles event included for the first time at the Paralympic Winter Games.

Jo was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2017 New Year Honours.