“Today I saw someone going down on a snowboard in a frame and they didn't even use their legs”, said Paralympic cycling champion, Jon-Allan Butterworth. “They used their body weight and their arms to tilt the snowboard on a frame. I didn't even know this existed. There’s not many barriers now in this modern life to do any sport”.
Jon-Allan Butterworth was on the slopes at The Snow Centre, Hemel Hempstead this week where a selection of summer ParalympicsGB athletes and disabled participants were attempting new winter sports. With the Winter Paralympics ongoing in Beijing, ParalympicsGB's summer teammates were attending the event to show their support for their Winter ParalympicsGB colleagues.
The 2016 Paralympic Cycling Champion and three time silver medallist at London 2012 has himself transitioned to the sport of snowboarding after 12 years in elite cycling.
Jon-Allan was born in Birmingham and joined the RAF at the age of 16 as a weapons engineer. He went to Afghanistan in 2005 and to Iraq in 2007, which is where he was injured at the age of 21. His arm was injured by shrapnel and had to be amputated to save his life.
During his rehabilitation at Headley Court he took part in cycling and was talent spotted by the British elite para-cycling team. He was medically discharged from the military and became a full time Paralympic athlete, funded by The National Lottery.
“Without The National Lottery, I wouldn’t have been able to do cycling full time and without doing it full time, I wouldn’t have been able to succeed at the top,” he said.
"In cycling, I won or came second in nearly every race I competed in during my career, but even when second, I was within one percent of the winning time and these are the margins you are talking about. If I had to do a job and cycle I couldn’t sustain that level of commitment and have it on the side. It would be exhausting.
"I would train and do a three hour training session in a 24 hour period and I would train five to six days a week.
"It’s quite a privileged position to be in. It’s only when you are an experienced athlete that you realise that all these sporting venues, even at grassroots level, The National Lottery has put money into.
"In cycling the amount of resource that goes into the special equipment is off the charts, whether that be the skin suits or competitions or wide forks, or the wheels we use. There’s the equipment and the RND (research and development) side of stuff. Then there is the doctor, the in-house physios, the nutritionists. You have access to the best people in the sporting industry with a knock on a door and you can dip in and out of what you need.
In July 2021 Jon-Allan moved into snowboarding and is attempting to make it to the 2026 Winter Paralympic Games in Milano Cortina.
“The margins are bigger in snow-sports, than cycling,” he said. “It is a less controlled environment. There’s more jeopardy there and you find the gaps are bigger.
“You still have video analysis from the coaches, the runs are timed and so you can look at the data there. Physiology isn’t as important. Weight is actually more important. It’s a very technique based sport.”
Jon-Allan is encouraging more young and disabled people to take up sport and show that Winter sports are available to everyone.
"In snowboarding, out of 100 times you may fall 90 times in a trick,” he said. In cycling, you lose more races than you win.
“One of my old coaches said to me, when I was really nervous at my third World Championship, ‘It’s only a bike race. Your life won’t end if you lose a bike race. You only go round in circles. What’s the worst that can happen?’. From that point on, it really relaxed me. It’s only a bike race. It’s not life or death. You do lose more than you win.
“What are you scared of? Pain? Yes it hurts, but it lasts for a few minutes - half an hour max. If you fall and break something - pain, a few months maybe. It heals. It is in your head. You put barriers on yourself for no reason.
“It’s more in your head. That’s the reason you don’t want to do it. The fear, fear of embarrassment, fear that you can’t do it, the potential it might hurt. Even if you fail, you tried. Pain is temporary. Failure is temporary.”
The Winter ParalympicsGB team are well on track to provide more memorable performances across a number of sports after already securing five medals by day three of competition. They have taken their most competitive ever team to a Paralympic Winter Games, with more athletes in more sports than ever before and in 2026, Jon-Allan wants to add to that number too.
Although recently injured whilst training, long term Jon-Allan will be training towards the next Winter Paralympics in 2026.
“My goal now is to get surgery and rehab out of the way, a summer camp in Saas Fee, Switzerland and go into it a second season and try and improve and get better every day,” he said.
“The end goal now, being an experienced Paralympian and knowing what is expected and knowing what the environment is like, the aim would be to go to a Winter Games and it doesn't matter where I finish. I think competing is amazing.
"The goal is the Paralympics and to see how far I can take it. I'm in a position now that I'm fortunate to have been in one sport already and there’s less pressure. I’ll see how far I can take it and almost try and enjoy it more and take it more in and try and be more present. I think a lot people are not present enough in their day to day lives and grateful for every day.
“You can never have a sad day in the mountains and I am in a privileged place to be able to do what I am able to do.”
The Paralympic Games is a time to celebrate remarkable sporting achievement and challenge perceptions through the inspirational abilities of disabled people. Jon-Allan Butterworth is one of over 1,000 athletes who has benefited from National Lottery funding which allows them to train full-time, have access to the world’s best coaches and benefit from pioneering technology, science and medical support. This funding has been crucial in getting them to the start line of the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in Beijing 2022.
National Lottery players are one of the biggest supporters of ParalympicsGB winter athletes and raise more than £30 million each week for good causes, including grassroots and elite sport. If you want to learn more about how you can take part in disability sport, visit www.parasport.org.uk
