The Armed Forces Para Snowsport Team (AFPST) has gone from strength to strength this year, with growth in the foundation teams and truly impressive performances on the world stage and at the Winter Paralympic Games. Following this success, around 50 newcomers attended the Armed Forces Para Snowsport Newcomers Event event at The Snow Centre last week. They had a chance to have a taster session on the snow, as well as to find out more about the Charity.
AFPST exists to aid the recovery of wounded, injured and sick service personnel and veterans. It does this through the medium of adaptive Alpine skiing, Snowboarding and Nordic skiing, providing a winter sports focus for adaptive athletes to regain their spirit of challenge, competition and achievement. In this way, it reintroduces the spirit of challenge and competition that they were accustomed to as part of normal military life.
However, the charity and their Newcomers Events also offer veterans the chance to form strong friendships with others who have shared similar experiences, fostering a familiar sense of military camaraderie.
This camaraderie is immediately obvious in the atmosphere of the Newcomers’ Day. Before getting on the slopes, it was evident that some taking part were quite nervous, uncertain of what the session would bring. However, within a few hours, any apprehension was long gone, replaced by beaming grins and excited chatter. By the time the slope had emptied and the participants headed up to lunch, there was a hugely positive atmosphere – you could just tell that everyone had really enjoyed the session.
One newcomer, Rochdale (aka Roch) said: “I might have to use a profanity to explain it but I’ll try not to… that was absolutely amazing.” A hugely active sportsman before an accident in combat left him with a broken back, to get back on snow meant the world to Roch, as you can see by his grin below. “Hopefully I might be able to get away with my family skiing one more time” he said.
It is unsuprising then, that this Newcomers’ Event has proved very popular in introducing the Charity to those who are passionate about snowsports and may want to develop their skills on a competitive level. In fact, the event has drawn so much attention that AFPST may run another session in the North to accommodate for interest across the country.
Major Elizabeth Winfield, Chief Operating Officer of AFPST said: “The Newcomers Event itself was developed with lots of great charities out there giving people opportunity on snow for one to two weeks, and from there lots of people were going away and doing some incredible stuff, but some wanted more of this environment.
This winter environment is pretty addictive and they wanted to be out on the snow and we were there to take them on the next stage of their journey, which was that of competition and being part of the team and just growing and developing.”
For those that may be interested in maintaining a link to the Charity, AFPST runs a year-round program of snow events for all levels, and has strong links with many Service charities.
The AFPST may be a relatively small, volunteer-run charity, but they make a huge impact to both newcomers’ and athletes lives and have pushed many boundaries. From starting the first adaptive snowboard foundation team and the first British Para Nordic Team for 20 years, to establishing representation on World Cups across all three disciplines, they really have achieved a huge amount already.
Their vision for the next few years is to grow a foundation of new Winter Athletes across all three disciplines whilst sustaining the success of the Paralympics through to the World Championships.
Over the next four years, they will aim to develop all those in the process to maximise their recovery journey, to transfer Athletes onto the National programmes and hopefully support the delivery of a Winter Invictus. Ultimately, the focus by 2022 will be on the delivery of elite performances and sending athletes to the Winter Paralympic Games 2022.
Daniel Sheen, a British sit skier with AFPST is one of their top hopes for 2022. He credits the Charity with getting him back into competitive sport. “I love sport, I’ve always loved sport and when I got blown up and I lost my legs, I thought that was the end of my sporting life. This has given me that back” Daniel said. “The aim is to hopefully get to the 2022 Winter Olympics – but not just get there, it would be nice to podium. There’s no point going just for the travel, I want to win something if I’m going!”
To find out more, head to: www.afpst.co.uk or follow them on Facebook.