Yorkshire’s Jo Butterfield MBE is preparing to compete in the Wheelchair Curling Mixed Doubles, a brand new event in the 2026 Winter Paralympics.
After winning gold at the 2016 Rio Paralympics in the club throw event, she made the switch to wheelchair curling back in 2023.
Butterfield is looking to become the first British athlete to win a gold medal at both the summer and winter Paralympic games.
She said: “To now have the opportunity to go for gold at both a Summer and a Winter Paralympic Games is something I’m incredibly proud of, a goal I set myself when I first transferred to wheelchair curling in 2023 and it’s a challenge I’m fully committed to embracing.
“Ever since I first became a Paralympian, I’ve carried the dream of not just competing, but of pushing boundaries and seeing what’s possible.”
Butterfield won bronze at the 2023 World Wheelchair Curling Championship in the mixed team event.
She was born and raised in Yorkshire, but now represents Scotland at international level.
Alongside her teammate, Jason Kean, from Newcastle, they will become the first representatives from outside Scotland to take to the ice for Team GB.
The pair are already guaranteed a place in the British history books as the first paralympic competitors in the mixed doubles event in Curling.
Butterfield spoke on the historic partnership, saying: “That’s the beauty of the Paralympics, it’s the one year that brings the home nations together and gave us an opportunity to try this partnership.”
In 2011, Butterfield was paralysed below the chest after being diagnosed with a spinal tumour, before moving into para-athletics. She made the switch across to wheelchair curling in 2022.
Great Britain take on Estonia in their first match of the round-robin stage on Wednesday, two days before the Opening Ceremony in Verona.
The event is being hosted in the Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium, which just hosted the successful Great Britain men’s team, who won silver for a second consecutive Winter Olympic Games.
Image credit: Paralympics GB website
