The Seven Summits are considered one of the greatest challenges in mountaineering worldwide. It takes some effort to to conquer the highest peaks on all seven continents. Imagine doing that as double above-knee amputate! Well that's the extraordinary achievement of Nepalese-British adventurer Hari Budha Magar who recently made history, again, by reaching the summit of Mount Vinson in Antarctica, thus successfully completing his “Seven Summits” mission. He tells us about is extraordinary story from the depths of despair to literally being on top of the world.
The first Winter Paralympics were held in the Swedish town of Örnsköldsvik in 1976. Nearly two-hundred competitors came from 16 countries. We hear from two blind skiing competitors with very different experiences - Finnish multi-gold medallist, Pertti Sankilampi, and Londoner Mike Brace, who learnt his sport shortly before the Games.
Paralympic gold medallist Matt "The Armless Archer" Stutzman is back with a new series of his podcast Rising Phoenix. This time his focus is on the extraordinary tales of winter Paralympians. But could we ever see Matt on the slopes? He also reflects on how much his gold medal performance in Paris meant to him and his family and how having retired after those Games, he has plenty to "dwell on" with the next Paralympics in front of his home crowd in LA 2028.
When Dani Aravich is not winning Paralympic gold, and by the way she's trying to add more as you read this, she is thinking about how she can raise the visibility of Para sport. Sadly when the curtain comes down on the games in Milan/ Cortina many people won't engage with para-sports until the LA Games in 2028. Determined to change that she has launched "Culxtured" a platform for fans to get excited about para-sport and where para-athletes can tell their story to the world. A bit like us really ! But we don't mind a bit of competition. She's not doing it on her own, she's been joined by amongst others, former Paralympic swimming medalist Anna Johannes. One of Culxtured's plans is to create their own podcast, so we thought we'd give them a chance to practice by getting Dani and Anna to interview themselves, whilst we put our feet up!
PHOT: Hari Budha Magar who lost his legs serving as a Gurkha’s in Afghanistan, the first double above the knee amputee to Climb Mount Everest (Credit: Ryan Sosna-Bowd/Getty Images
