Paralympic javelin champion Dan Pembroke brews beer to fuel gold goal ahead of Milan Winter Games

Dan Pembroke, a two-time Paralympic and world champion in the F13 javelin, is merging sport with brewing as he targets gold at the 2026 Winter Olympics and Paralympics in Milan. After Paris, where he claimed his second Paralympic title, he began to brew Paris Gold to symbolize the gold medal dream. He now has a Milan beer in the works, described as an Italian pilsner using West Coast hops, with plans for both alcoholic and non-alcoholic versions. Pembroke hopes to send batches to Italy for British athletes to enjoy after the Winter Games, turning a personal ritual into a broader message about manifestation and preparation.

Two months before Paris, Pembroke's coach John Trower spoke about visualization and manifestation, ideas he deemed powerful in sport. Pembroke said he wanted to make the concept his own and to manifest what he wanted in Paris: he aimed to win gold and lift a beer in celebration.

Pembroke said the project is about more than beer. "This is about me talking in front of crowds of people in conferences, in hospitality, about accessibility for people with invisible disabilities like myself," he said. "I go into a restaurant or a bar and I often get asked dietary requirements, but never accessibility requirements. I want to change that space for invisible disabilities, and in particular, visual impairments."

Earlier in his athletics career, Pembroke targeted the London 2012 Olympics before an elbow injury ended that dream. After a seven-year break and with his eyesight deteriorating, he came to Para-sport in 2019. Within two years he was Paralympic champion, throwing a Paralympic record of 69.52m in Tokyo. In Paris he reached new heights, breaking Uzbekistan's Aleksandr Svechnikov's seven-year world record with a 74.49m throw on his third attempt and, on the next effort, defending his Paralympic crown.

A year on from that golden achievement, Pembroke's next task is defending the global title he won in 2023 and 2024 at the Para-athletics World Championships in New Delhi, which get under way this weekend. As part of a 37-strong British contingent, he heads for India with what he calls a renewed hunger after the Paris high. "Paris was the pinnacle of my career so far," he said. "It's weird to adjust coming back down the other side, because you need to reset your goals and your ambitions of where you want to go in the future. Those four months after Paris were very odd and strange for me. I was having ups and downs, but a big roller coaster of emotions, trying to adjust to what I'd done and where I'm going next. It wasn't all sunshine and rainbows, it was pretty difficult."

Sunshine is now on the horizon, however — Pembroke and his wife, Martina, will welcome their first baby in November. The prospect of having his child trackside at the LA Paralympics in three years' time is providing added motivation for Pembroke to continue his work both in and out of athletics. "I'm not getting any younger, and I want to make the most of how my body's feeling at the moment," he said. "I think I have the potential to break the [world] record and go more than 75m." When he finally retires, Pembroke hopes to have a sense of having done something good beyond medals and to help change the space for people with visual impairments.

Beyond his own goals, Pembroke intends to ensure that the space for people with visual impairments becomes more accessible. He said the beer project is a way to draw attention to the issue and to inspire other athletes to pursue bold, unconventional ideas that raise visibility for people with invisible disabilities.