WHEN IT comes to guiding a visually impaired skier down a Paralympic slalom, there’s nobody in the world better than Jen Kehoe.

Now the British army officer has the gold medal to prove it.

For more than a week she and Menna Fitzpatrick lit up PyeongChang, recovering from a first-race fall to pick themselves back up again and then some, already winning two silvers and one bronze medal.

Yet the pair had one, final rocket-fuelled hurrah up their sleeves, a gold medal-winning performance to end their Winter Games debut on the highest of highs.

As Kehoe took her place atop the podium with the Welsh teenager, few could say this pair didn’t deserve the honour they had worked so hard for on and off the snow.

That continued right until the very last emotional day and the unlikeliest of dramas – a ski boot falling on Fitzpatrick’s head when travelling to the Jeongseon Alpine Centre.

“Words don’t even cover what we’re feeling right now, it hasn’t properly sunk and we left everything out there on that hill, we fought right to the very end,” said the 34-year-old Kehoe, who walked alongside flagbearer Fitzpatrick at the closing ceremony.

“We had a few tears this morning, a ski boot fell on Menna’s head – but I think I’m going to have to push her over more often because she comes back from these things brilliantly.

“It’s a lot to take in, especially from all the support we’ve had back home, we got some amazing messages from our family here and back home, just wishing us all the best and I think that probably played a part.

“You realise that you’re making people proud and you want to carry on doing that.

“We had a sing in the start gate and it seemed to work, we sung 'I like big butts' (Sir Mix-A-Lot’s Baby Got Back) – we just try to have anything that makes us giggle.”

A fall on the first day could have spelt disaster for Kehoe and the skier she guides, forced to physically and emotionally get themselves back on the piste.

They did so in the best possible way, first winning a bronze medal in the super-G before two silvers followed to head into the final slalom beaming with confidence.

But to win they had to do something that nobody had done throughout four events in this Games – beat Henrieta Farkasova to the gold medal.

An agonising wait ensued as Kehoe and Fitzpatrick were second at the halfway stage but, one run later, their combined time of 1:51.80 proved enough for gold and the tag of becoming Britain’s most successful Winter Paralympian, with teammates Millie Knight and Brett Wild taking bronze in the most successful Games for 34 years.

“After the super-combined slalom we knew that it was close, we knew it was possible to beat Henrieta because we have done that this season – we just went for it and did everything that was in our control,” added Kehoe, who communicates with the partially-sighted Fitzpatrick via Bluetooth.

“Because I’d seen the split times, I’d seen that Henrieta’s final split was down by a fraction and I dared to believe it was possible at that point.

“When they came over the finish line and it was red, I was speechless and it was such a proud moment, a dream come true.

“I spent a lot of time talking through what I could see before we even went into it, reassuring her that it would be fine because we’ve skied courses like this a million times.”

Sainsbury’s is a proud long-term supporter of the British Paralympic Association and a champion of inclusive sport for all. For more information on Sainsbury’s commitment to inclusive sport j-sainsbury.co.uk/