Heather Mills, the ex-wife of Beatle Sir Paul McCartney and aspiring Winter Paralympian, is heading to Australia in a quest to impress Team Great Britain selectors.
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The 45-year-old former model turned animal activist is hoping to represent the UK at the Paralympic Winter Games in Sochi next year.
Mills lost her lower left leg in 1993 after being involved in an accident with a police motorcycle in London. She rose to fame in 2002 when she married McCartney. The couple’s relationship ended acrimoniously in 2008 and Mills reportedly received a divorced settlement of about $50 million.
She won silver at the Alpine Adaptive Slalom World Cup in New Zealand last week and will compete in the IPC Alpine Skiing World Cup in Thredbo on Wednesday and Thursday.
Mills, who is ranked 28th in the world for slalom, will compete in the women’s standing class for athletes with a physical impairment at the championships, which starts on Monday and continues for four-days.
This is the first time the international event has been held in Australia.
However it will be a warm weekend on the mountains, with Perisher Valley forecast to get up to a top of 14 degrees on Sunday.
There is little in the way of snow forecast for the region, and there is a good chance overnight temperatures will be too warm for substantial snowmaking.
But thanks to significant snow falls in the last three weeks which tripled snow depths across the mountain region, there is still a good base of snow for people heading to the slopes.
“This is a huge event for our Australian athletes,” Australian Paralympic Committee chief Jason Hellwig said.
“The nature of the winter sport is that our athletes need to spend a lot of time in Europe and North America training and competing. They rarely, if ever, get the chance to train and compete against international rivals at home.
“The APC has given them this chance by bringing a World Cup event here for the first time, and what better timing than six months out from the Paralympic Winter Games.
“We are delighted that several Paralympic medalists from around the world will make the trip down under, and of course, it will be very interesting to see how Heather Mills fares in the women’s slalom against some very strong competition.”
- with Hamish Boland-Rudder
