Millie Knight challenges body and mind while mastering the slopes for the Winter Paralympics

Going for gold: Millie Knight competing at the 2014 Paralympic Games
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Millie Knight describes losing her sight as the best thing that’s ever happened to her, an astonishing statement from a 19-year-old who has already surprised so much in her career.

An infection in her right eye aged one led to her losing the majority of her sight in that eye, while the same thing happened to her left eye five years later. As she puts it rather bluntly, “My sight is now pretty rubbish”.

But in the same breath, she counters: “I got lucky as it’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me because of the things I’ve been able to do.”

Friday is the opening ceremony for the PyeongChang Paralympics and this will be Knight’s second Games.

Four years ago she carried the flag for the British team in Sochi, finishing fifth in the slalom and giant slalom.

Whereas there was no expectation in 2014, now the demands are noticeable with her becoming a world champion in downhill last year in Italy, where she also won three silver medals.

“From the age of 12, my dream was to go to the 2018 Winter Paralympics, it’s just that dream got realised four years earlier,” says Knight, who competes in five events this time, starting with the downhill tomorrow.

“Last time, there was no pressure so I could just enjoy it but to go from a Europa Cup as the biggest race I’d been to, that was incredible. I know the World Championships now puts pressure on me but I probably work better under pressure. But I’m not in a place where I want to be.”

Two crashes — one over the finish line at the Worlds and again at a World Cup event in Korea — left her concussed.

“The first one was okay, the second I flipped on my head and had to be blue-lighted to hospital,” she recalls. “It took time to get over and there were so many symptoms.”

Facing her A-levels just three months after the Worlds was one challenge, although she came away with three A*s and in September will go to Loughborough University to study psychology.

While there were headaches and dizziness, she explains: “I had so much support from physios and psychologists in rebuilding my confidence, and I’d say in the start gate of a race it’s 80 per cent psychological and 20 per cent on performance.”

Spoken like a true psychologist in waiting. The confidence is back with Brett Wild as her guide of the past two years, a relatively short time compared to Slovakian rival Henrieta Farkasova, who has been with her guide for a decade.

Of her own partnership, she says: “It’s quite a unique relationship as he’s someone who needs to guide me safely and quickly — about 115kph (71mph) — down a mountain and without a doubt in my mind. He’s just fantastic.”

To build the trust, they try to spend as much time as possible off the slopes. In the summer, Wild visited the Knight family home for two weeks, while she went to his home in Scotland with her mother Suzanne, who travels with her to all her races. “You just need to know each other’s habits and that’s always improving,” she says. “For example, Brett now knows from my breathing whether I’m confident or not.”

Even with the concussion setback, the pair will be among the gold favourites but Knight admits: “I don’t know that I have a particular medal target that I want to reach. The moment you start thinking about the outcome, that’s when you lose it.”

Once more spoken like a true psychologist.

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