Team UK wins four medals as final winter sports events are contested in Whistler

Team UK won four medals on the fifth day of the Invictus Games as the final winter sports events concluded in Whistler.

Army veteran Mark Abel won gold in the men's visually impaired category of the Alpine Skiing event alongside his guide Neil Graham.

There were also medals in Alpine Skiing for Stacey Mitchell and Samantha May, who both took home bronze medals.

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In snowboarding, Team UK's Kyle Burgess took home a silver medal in the men's open category.

Alongside competing, the former Army soldier has also spent time in Whistler coaching other competitors, which he says has also been "crucial" for his own recovery.

Speaking to BFBS Forces News, he said: "For me, it was brilliant! It has brought my passion back to the sport, I had lost that for a while, and I have sort of refound that passion for coaching.

"That gratitude that you get from seeing everyone just develop and improve, and just achieve things that they never thought they'd be able to do, it gives me more of a bubbly feeling.

"That's crucial to my own recovery to be able to do that."

One athlete Burgess has had a hand in coaching in Whistler is Team UK captain Stephen Hooper

"I was petrified," he said. "I came off the back of Dusseldorf [2023] and I did powerlifting, and I didn't get any clean lifts.

"I was getting really emotional because I was like, 'what if I don’t hit the gates? What if I don’t get a time?' So, I was really getting worked up," he added.

Hooper credited Burgess for coaching him through the event and also spoke of receiving "words of encouragement" from the Duke of Sussex.

He said: "If it weren't for this man [Burgess], he settled me down, he took me up, calmed me out and I just followed him down and he coached me through it.

"I had a few words of encouragement at the top from the Duke of Sussex – it was absolutely incredible.

"It settled the nerves, and I was able to lay a run down and I hit every gate, and I went through the line.

"So, nothing else matters to me, I'm done."

Elsewhere, Jules Bale managed to get down her run in the Alpine Skiing event in front of her daughter Sophie, having not skied for around 30 years.

Bale served as a nurse with the RAF and the Army before being medically discharged after sustaining a traumatic brain injury in 2021 while on operation in Kenya.

She said: "The knock-on effect from that [injury] means I have constant tinnitus and headaches and particular problems with short-term memory.

"So, for me to ski, I normally have to be re-acquainted with skiing every time I go to remind me how to ski."