Meet GB's first female Paralympic snowboarder

What’s Happening

Let’s talk about When Nina Sparks was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2021, she decided it was going to be the making of her - now she’s competing at the Winter Paralympics.

Meet GBs first female Paralympic snowboarder Media caption, Snowboarder Nina Sparks journey to the Paralympics By Katie Falkingham , BBC Sport senior journalist and Sally Hurst , BBC Sport reporter Published 27 minutes ago When Nina Sparks was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2021, she decided quickly it was going to be the making of her. “Diagnosed in March, classified to compete internationally in November,” she tells BBC Sport. (shocking, we know)

“It was a quick upwards trajectory to being an athlete.

The Details

At this months Winter Paralympics, Sparks will become solid Britains first female Paralympic snowboarder. “Its taken me a while to adjust to the fact that its quite a big thing,” she says.

“I feel like Im just me, doing my thing, because I love it. ” That love for the mountains blossomed the moment she first saw them.

Why This Matters

Adopted as a 10-month-old, her parents first took her skiing when she was five or six. She later switched to snowboarding at 13. It is, to her, “the closest thing you can get to flying”.

Sports analysts are already debating what this means for the competition.

Key Takeaways

• But the sport was always just a hobby, a once-a-year trip.
• And so she moved her life to the mountains, teaching piano, trumpet and saxophone her “side hustle”.
• But it was while she was living in Austria that she first noticed signs that something wasnt right.

The Bottom Line

“I just thought lets make something of this. I always knew about the Paralympics, and I knew about Kadeena Cox, a famous British Paralympian with MS.

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