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British Paralympian Jo Butterfield is embarking on an extraordinary quest, aiming to make history by securing gold at both the Summer and Winter Games after a remarkable recovery from breast cancer.
The 46-year-old made her Winter Paralympics debut in Milan-Cortina, finishing fifth alongside Jason Kean in the wheelchair curling mixed doubles, an experience that has only intensified her resolve.
Butterfield, who claimed the F51 club throw title at Rio 2016, is now a strong contender to become the first Briton to achieve gold in both Paralympic seasons.
With her summer discipline restored to the programme, she harbours aspirations of competing at the 2028 Games in Los Angeles, before rejoining Kean for the 2030 Winter Paralympics in the French Alps.
"My plan is to try and do both in the next cycle," she told Press Association Sport.
"It should be (easy to balance). I think curling are massively supportive, athletics is individual so it’s a little bit easier to fit in around the team sport. Hopefully it will work but we’ll find out."
Her journey back to elite sport followed a challenging period. Butterfield turned her attention to curling in 2022 after her athletics event was pulled from the Paris 2024 schedule. Just a year later, she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
Reflecting on her recovery, Butterfield, who was left paralysed from the chest down in 2011 after undergoing surgery to remove a tumour from her spine, said: "It was two years ago I got the all-clear but the two years before that if someone said to me that you would be at Milan-Cortina, I don’t know if I ever really believed it. I was going day by day thinking, ‘am I even going to be here next week?’ almost, never mind at a Paralympic Games."
Despite the fifth-place finish in Milan-Cortina, Butterfield views her participation as a significant triumph.
"You have to put things in perspective a little bit and it wasn’t the result we wanted but on a bigger picture, there’s been so much achievement just to be there, just to be back where I want to be. I don’t take that lightly."
The partnership with Kean, formed just four months prior to the Games, saw them recover from losing their opening two matches to win three of the next four. Their semi-final hopes were dashed by an agonising 11-10 defeat to hosts Italy.
"It was within grasp and that’s what’s really frustrating and really annoying because it’s quite an open competition," Butterfield explained. "To be able to get that semi-final, I think we had a really good shout at getting that gold medal."
Her ambition for gold remains undimmed.
"When I started in athletics it was about trying to get a gold medal in Rio, and I was successful in that one. When I started in curling that was still the goal and the dream and that’s not gone away – it’s probably been more enlightened, if anything.
“Me and Jay, it’s been so special and to win it for myself is brilliant but to actually win it with him would be even more special."
Butterfield, originally from Doncaster but now residing in Glasgow, was supported by her wife Rhiannon at the Games.
She plans to spend her 47th birthday on Thursday training, a testament to her unwavering dedication.
"Me and Jason turned around to each other and said, ‘can we just go again now’?" she revealed. "And I think if we went again now, the experience of the last week would probably be the difference.
“You can fast-track a lot of things but you can’t fast-track experience. We were a bit like rabbits in the headlights at the start, and I think that’s probably what cost us in the end."
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