BBR’s Davy Zyw competes at the Winter Paralympics
Berry Bros. & Rudd buyer Davy Zyw has become the first snowsport athlete with motor neurone disease (MND) to compete at the Winter Paralympics which is currently being held at Milano Cortina in Italy.
Zyw, who has been the UK’s oldest fine wine and spirits merchant’s senior buyer for Champagne and Italy since October 2017, competed in the men’s snowboard cross over the weekend, making it through through seeding and the pre-heats on Saturday in San Zan. The snowboard cross is a highly technical race, which sees four athletes race a winding course that includes a series of jumps, rollers and other obstacles.
The Edinburgh born athlete is competing in the SB-UL classification, for athletes whose upper limb impairments affect their balance as the disease currently impacts his hands, arms and torso. He is competing against para-athletes with a range of disabilities affecting their limbs, including amputees.
However, the Guardian reported that during the race on Sunday, which would have given him a place in the quarter-final, Zyw was taken to hospital “as a precaution” after crashing on part of the course. Family and friends attributed the crash to Zyw having a lack of upper body strength due to the disease, leaving him “unable to steady himself in the critical moments”.
Zyw was also due to compete in the men’s banked slalom.
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Zyw was diagnosed with the neurological disease aged only 30. The incurable and degenerative disease affects the motor neurones nerve found in the brain and spinal cord, which tell muscles what to do. As the disease progresses, the motor neurones’ messaging gradually stop reaching the muscles, leading muscles to weaken, stiffen and waste, affecting not only movement, but also talking, eating, drinking and breathing.
In an interview with the ParalympicGB last month he said he had “a responsibility” to use his voice “to raise the horizons for everyone who has been affected” by the disease, adding that “it means the world that I can represent them in Cortina.”
A competitive snowboarder in big air, slopestyle and rail competitions in his teens and early twenties before a knee injury ended his childhood dreams, Zyw has always described himself as “one of the lucky ones” as “I can still get down a slope on my snowboard”.
“I never went out to do this for myself. It was for every poor soul who lives and battles every day with MND. It’s for the people who have lost loved ones to MND and for every person yet to be diagnosed,” he said.
