Scots Snowboarder with MND Aiming for Paralympics
10th December 2024
Last modified on January 7th, 2025
A British man is hoping to become the first snowsports athlete with Motor Neurone Disease to compete at the Winter Paralympics.
Davy Zyw, who’s 37 and from Edinburgh, was diagnosed with MND in 2018.
The former competitive snowboarder has recently started on his journey with two successful FIS Para Snowboard banked slalom events.
He won two silver medals in Dubai and finished 12th in Landgraaf in the Netherlands.
He is in the GB Snowsport Para Snowboard Development Squad, so doesn’t train with the main World Cup Squad.
But PlanetSKI understands the coaches are impressed and believe he has the potential to progress quite quickly.
His first goal is to gain enough points this season to make it into the FIS World Cup Para Snowboard series.
Then he will need a top 15 to qualify for the 2026 Milan-Cortina Games.
It will, without doubt, be tough to reach the standard to qualify in the short time available.
But if he makes it, he will be the first Paralympic athlete with MND from the UK in any sport and the world’s first Winter Paralympian with the disease.
Davy Zyw training at Hillend, Midlothian Sports Centre. Image c/o wearestoryshop
“It’d be unbelievable to make it – I get goosebumps thinking about it,” Zyw says.
“At this stage, it’s almost impossible to imagine myself there. The standard of competition is incredibly high, many of my fellow para athletes are full time snowboarders so I’m taking nothing for granted, but to be able to compete at this level is really encouraging.
“I need to get faster and tighten my technique for the next races, but feel I’m making progress every time I step in.”
Despite the progressive nature of MND, Zyw has recently received his para classification, clearing him to compete.
He will be in the Upper Limb category, competing against para athletes with a range of disabilities affecting their limbs, including amputees.
His MND predominantly currently impacts his hands and arms but will eventually move to other parts of his body.
Zyw had ambitions to be a full-time professional snowboarder when he was younger and was sponsored by major snowsports brands in his teens and early twenties.
He competed in international age group categories before a serious knee injury forced him to abandon sport as a career.
Since his diagnosis in 2018 he has raised more £1 million for MND causes, including the My Name’5 Doddie Foundation, with a series of gruelling endurance challenges.
They include cycling 264 miles across the notorious ‘High Five’ route in the Scottish Highlands in 2022 and from Edinburgh to Rome earlier this year.
But he believes getting to Milan-Cortina in 2026 will be his toughest challenge yet.
Davy Zyw training at Hillend, Midlothian Sports Centre. Image c/o wearestoryshop
“To qualify for the Winter Paralympics would be phenomenal – it feels a long way off despite the hurdles I’ve already cleared,” he says.
“I thought I was going to be dead within two years when I was diagnosed in 2018, and here I am gearing up for a winter of snowboard racing – I feel incredibly lucky.
“I am dreaming big and taking the opportunities in front of me and hope I’m good enough to qualify.
“Above all I’m going to enjoy the journey and hope to raise awareness along the way.
“Perhaps, unusually for a para athletes, I’m thrilled that I’m eligible. At one point, I wasn’t even sure I’d be able to compete as there wasn’t a category for MND, or neurological conditions. When they told me I’d at least be able to try was an incredible feeling.
“The nature of MND means I’m only going to get weaker and more adversely affected as the disease progresses.
“I have full range of movement in some areas, some muscles are totally gone, and others are in the grey zone. It puts me in a position where I know that even if I get there, I’ll be performing at a lower level versus some other athletes, and yet I’m more able bodied than others – but that doesn’t deter me.
“Everyone competing in parasport has had huge challenges to overcome by just being on their snowboards, it is a truly inspiring group of athletes to compete with.”
Until he qualifies for World Cup competitions Zyw is having to find all the money he needs himself.
He’s been supported by his twin brother, Tommy, but believes it will cost at least £15,000 to attend the races he needs to compete in.
Davy Zyw with twin brother Tommy. Image c/o wearestoryshop
There are six competitions coming up in Europe – in Finland, Austria and Germany.
He has set up a Just Giving page to try to raise some of the money through donations and is also looking for sponsors.
“It’s ironic that having MND may now offer a route to fulfill my childhood dream, to compete at snowboarding on the world stage,” Zyw says.
“It’s hard not to get emotional about that. I can’t believe this cruel disease has taken me back to my roots and love of the mountain.
“But this is a chance to put MND in the global spotlight at one of the biggest sporting events in the world.
“I have to do it for everybody living with MND.”
Davy Zyw. Image c/o wearestoryshop
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