British skier Scott Meenagh lifts lid on secret inspiration for fulfillment at Milano Cortina Paralympic Games
The Cumbernauld ace has been officially selected to go to Milan Cortina in March and is determined to come home with a maiden medal in his final event before retirement.
Scott Meenagh is going to leave quite the legacy when he finally hangs up his skis but insists he has one last goal to accomplish: inspire his young daughter Bryn at the upcoming Winter Paralympic Games.
The Cumbernauld ace has been officially selected to go to Milan Cortina in March and is determined to come home with a maiden medal in his final event before retirement.
The former paratrooper is set for his third Paralympics and his best result to date is sixth in the 12.5km biathlon from Beijing four years ago.
Meenagh has since become the first British athlete to win a Para Nordic World Championships medal, with silver in 2023, but is putting individual glory aside in Milan and just wants to capture the imagination of his four-year-old girl.
“My main motivation right now is to show the best version of myself to my daughter,” the 36-year-old said.
“She’s probably going to be old enough to remember these Games, and what I want is for her to witness her dad at his absolute best.
“That’s what sport is all about; having the opportunity to be a better version of yourself.”
Meenagh’s journey to a third Games in the Dolomites is all the more remarkable given that it began in the juxtaposing heat of Helmand Province nearly 15 years ago.
It was in the Afghan desert that a 21-year-old Meenagh lost both of his legs in an IED explosion when serving in the British Army. Only the heroic actions of a friend who disobeyed direct orders saved his life.
From there, he took up rowing during his rehab as a “reason to get out of bed in a morning”, and so he “could turn up [somewhere] every day to train”.
It resulted in him being named a captain of the British Army team at the 2014 Invictus Games, but after watching the 2014 Winter Paralympics , Meenagh’s Nordic dream was born after a discussion with gold medallist David Smith in a Sochi coffee shop.
“I witnessed Nordic for the first time, and I was just blown away by the facets of fitness that Nordic captures,” he said. “You have to be hideously aerobically fit, strong, technically good at skiing, accurate and be able to keep a calm mind.
“It captured everything that an athlete in my eyes needs. I was really inspired by it, and I was determined from 2016 onwards to explore the sport.
“I’d finally redefined myself, I’d found my new purpose, my new identity and I was really proud of the individual performance I was able to put out.”
Meenagh is hoping for a smoother Games than last time in Beijing.
His daughter Bryn was born three months prematurely just before the Beijing Games, while COVID-19 delayed the departure of his team to the Chinese capital and a serious Achilles injury meant Meenagh’s biathlon coach couldn’t make the trip either.
“At the time I posed a direct threat to the Canadian athletes,” recalled Meenagh. “When I arrived in the village, Kate was there, leading the Canadian team. But she stepped up and made sure that I had ski support, biathlon support and brought me into their fold for the few days that it took for my team to arrive.
“That’s the Nordic culture in a nutshell. I would have had every excuse under the sun to have folded and let it all get on top of me. But I’m really proud of the fact our program and our sport is built on solid human connections.
“That is what I am going to miss.”
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