Paralympian Jade Etherington comments on the decision to retire from competitive ski racing with her guide Caroline Powell:
After many discussions with Caroline we have both decided to retire from competitive ski racing as part of the British Disabled Ski Team (BDST). We will be sad to leave the Paralympic Alpine Skiing programme and we will both miss our sport and athletes on the team and circuit.
Caroline and I now wish to follow different paths which we feel will be more fulfilling for us in the long term: Caroline with her instructing in Switzerland, while I would like to complete my qualification as a teacher and increase my motivational speaking.
Caroline expresses her love for being a guide, saying it was a great experience and adding that to work alongside a talented athlete has positively challenged her abilities within the adaptive, Alpine and racing world of skiing.
It is hard for me to sum up my last six years on the team but I have enjoyed my time, from my personal and athlete development to making some friends for life. I have improved my skiing ability the most within the last six months since Caroline has become my guide, something that was reflected in the success that we had together in Sochi which I will never forget.
We hope the future team gets the support they deserve and strives toward Pyeongchang 2018.
It was an honour to represent ParalympicsGB and to make history at the Sochi 2014 Winter Paralympics. Caroline and I are Britain’s most successful Winter Paralympians, with four medals from our first games, and we really hope to inspire more people to enjoy skiing as a result. We have both immersed ourselves in ski racing for many years and now we look forward to achieving our goals in other spheres.
