Former soldier among first ParalympicsGB snowsport athletes announced for Milano Cortina 2026

Former British Army soldier Scott Meenagh is among the first British snowsport athletes to be named onto the ParalympicsGB squad for the upcoming Milano Cortina 2026 Paralympic Winter Games.

Meenagh will compete in the Para Nordic Skiing events (Biathlon and Cross-country) where he will be hoping to sign off in spectacular fashion in what he says will be his third and final Paralympic Games. 

He made his Paralympics debut at the Pyeongchang 2018 games after he attended Sochi 2014 as a spectator, becoming the first British Para Nordic skier to compete at that level in 20 years.

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After he competed at the Beijing 2022 games, Meenagh went on to become the first British athlete to win a Para Nordic World Championships medal when he took silver in the 12.5km individual biathlon in 2023. 

Now with plans to call time on his Para Nordic career after the games, Meenagh told ParalympicsGB that he is "incredibly proud" to be selected for his third Paralympic Games. 

He said: "I am incredibly proud to be selected to represent Great Britain at the Paralympic Winter Games. Every time is incredibly special, and this year will be my third Games. 

"This is a testament to the powerful dream we had as a group, when this journey was conceived in a coffee shop in 2016.

"A Games in Italy will be extra special as it's much closer to home. To have my wife, children, family, and friends travelling to support me will help push me to another level."

Scott Meenagh served in the 2nd Battalion Parachute Regiment and was deployed to Afghanistan in 2011, aged 21. 

It was there where he lost both of his legs after stepping on an IED (improvised explosive device) in Helmand Province.

After a year of rehabilitation and learning to walk again with prosthetic limbs, he took up multiple sports such as rowing and athletics, and he captained the British Army at the 2014 Invictus Games. 

After his unsuccessful bid to qualify for the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio, he quickly made a switch to one of the toughest winter sport disciplines around, Nordic Skiing, in a quest to reach the 2018 Paralympic Winter Games, which he did so successfully and where he became the first Briton in 20 years to compete at that level.