The Queen of Paralympic Snowboarding
Dutchwoman Bibian Mentel-Spee campaigned for her event to be in the games, then won Gold in the first event in 2014.
Bibian Mentel-Spee became a national hero in the Netherlands after campaigning for snowboarding to become part of the Winter Paralympics and then winning Gold the first time the event was held, at Sochi in 2014. Mentel-Spee had switched to Paralympic sport after cancer forced her to have a leg amputated. She would win two more gold snowboarding medals at the next games in Pyeongchang in 2018, just weeks after another gruelling round of cancer treatment. Mentel-Spee died in 2021. Matthew Kenyon speaks to her husband, Edwin Spee, and to Canadian Paralympic snowboarder, Michelle Salt.
PHOTO: Bibian Mentel-Spee in action in 2014 (Getty Images)
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- Sat 26 Feb 2022 18:50GMTΒι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ World Service except East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa
- Sun 27 Feb 2022 22:50GMTΒι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ World Service East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa only
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