Paralympic Games flame is lit at Stoke Mandeville

The Paralympic flame has been lit ahead of the 2026 Paralympic Winter Games.

British skier Millie Knight lit the flame cauldron at Stoke Mandeville Stadium in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, alongside Italian ice hockey captain Andrea Macrì.

The King's College London student, from Ashford in Kent, said her course colleagues and lecturers were previously unaware she was a four-time Paralympic Games medallist.

"I'm not really one to celebrate myself, so my course lecturers at King's were rather shocked when I said I couldn't make a meeting due to lighting the Paralympic flame," she said.

Stoke Mandeville is the birthplace of the paralympic movement.

It began from the village's hospital in 1948 after Dr Ludwig Guttmann helped to rehabilitate soldiers injured during World War Two.

Knight retired from skiing in 2023 and currently does martial arts while studying a master's in physiotherapy.

She lost her sight at a young age after an infection and took part in her first Paralympics in 2012, the same year London hosted the sporting event.

She has won four medals for ParalympicsGB in the alpine skiing slalom, super G, and downhill events.

The 27-year-old said attitudes towards the competition had changed in a "remarkable" way since then.

She added: "Paralympians have become household names, people can think off the top of their heads three to five Paralympians.

"People are now treating athletes with disabilities and impairments as elite athletes, not just athletes that have got disabilities, and I think that in itself is such an achievement."

The flame will now be conveyed by 501 torchbearers about 2,000km (1,243 miles) to Verona in Italy where the games will begin on 6 March.

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