Millie Knight is hoping to inspire others with disabilities to take up sports when she competes at her second Winter Paralympics.

The 19-year-old partially sighted skier begins her quest for medals at Pyeongchang in South Korea this week when she competes in five events.

She hopes the games, which are being shown on Channel 4, will encourage others to get into sport.

She said: “By the time the Paralympics come around, hopefully there will be people watching it who have not seen much winter sports before and it will open doors for people and they try out sports they may not have done before.

“That would be fantastic if I could inspire a generation, like London did for me.

“I went to the Paralympics opening ceremony in London and watched all the athletes walking out and thought it was amazing and wanted to do that. Really, London was the start of my inspiration.

“There aren’t many sports like it and every athlete that steps up to the start line is completely different to the one that has just gone. Channel 4 will do such a great job with the coverage.”

Millie has already been recognised for her achievements in the last 18 months which included winning downhill gold at the Para-alpine skiing championships in January 2017.

This was the first ever gold for a British para-skier and she also won silver medals in the giant slalom, slalom and supercombined events.

She also came in the top three of BBC’s Young Sports Personality of the Year at the end of 2017.

She said: “It was an exciting time. That day we were on Ski Sunday as well, so that had great feedback, which was an hour before SPOTY.

“Even to be nominated was amazing because skiing is a minority sport, para-skiing is even more a minority sport.”

Millie is already a Winter Paralympics veteran and is still a teenager. She competed at Sochi at 2014 and carried the Great Britain flag at the closing ceremony.

She added: “Even when I went to Sochi, 2018 was my goal and my dream had been brought forward by four years. I always thought 2018 was so far away and that it would never come around. It always felt like it was 1,000 days to go.

“There are always a little bit of nerves but I guess that just shows you care about what you are doing. I’m excited.

“Sochi was a crazy experience and I went into it with no pressure and no expectation and just went to experience what the games were like.

“The expectation on my performance was little. “I enjoyed my time there and it puts me in a great position for the games now.

“I was lucky to have that experience as it will put me in a much more positive position. I’m looking forward to this.

“There’s going to be no surprises and I will know exactly what the environment is like.

“Now I can picture what I will need and what I won’t need. I can mentally prepare a bit better.”