Menna Fitzpatrick, Britain’s most decorated Winter Paralympian, claimed fifth in the women’s para alpine skiing slalom in her final outing at Milan-Cortina before setting her sights on the 2030 Games.
Fitzpatrick remarkably opted against anterior cruciate ligament surgery in December in order to compete at a third Paralympics.
After sixth-placed showings in the giant slalom VI and Super G, along with ninth in the combined alpine, Fitzpatrick took fifth with a time of one minute and 36.38 seconds for the slalom to end a difficult build-up to these Games on a high.
Asked if she had thought about future plans, Fitzpatrick told Channel 4: “Do you know what, not massively.
“Each cycle you lead up to the games and you have that end goal in mind. I do want to go to France if I can in 2030, so yeah, I’ll have a bit of time and then switch back into training.”
Six-time Paralympic medallist Fitzpatrick will begin preparations for the Games in the French Alps with a solid final two races behind her after she followed up fifth in her first run on Saturday with 47.37, with sixth in a second run and a time of 48.30.
Fitzpatrick, who won gold in the slalom in 2018, added: “Yeah, it probably was my best performance.
“As an athlete, you’ve got to work with what you’ve got and every little bump in the way is good resilience training, I would say. You just have to know deep down that I have the skill and I just need to get it out on race day.”
PA
