Bibian Mentel-Spee (27 September 1972 – 29 March 2021) was a Dutch three-fold Winter Paralympics gold-medalist, and five-times world champion para-snowboarding athlete.

Mentel became six times Dutch champion in the regular, non-disabled half-pipe and snowboard cross disciplines, before developing medical troubles.

[3] During a practice run for the championships in Breckenridge, Colorado, in December 1999, she suffered an injury in her ankle.

The tumor was removed and Mentel started training for the 2002 Winter Olympics for which she qualified.

[8] At the 2018 Winter Paralympics in PyeongChang, Mentel was once again the Dutch flag bearer, again winning the gold medal in the snowboard cross, as well as taking the gold medal on the banked slalom event, beating American competitor Brittani Coury by 0.07 seconds.

[8] In 2016 she was told the cancer was terminal, but a switch to a different hospital, where she could receive advanced MRI-guided radiotherapy treatment,[1] pulled her through, such that she was able to compete successfully in 2018.

Magnate and philanthropist Richard Branson called her second book Kut kanker!, whose title loosely translates as "Cancer Is Crap!

In 2004 she graduated from the four-year high-level professional program in 'commercial economics, sports marketing & management' at the Randstad Topsports Academy[14] – a collaboration of the Hogeschool Rotterdam and the Saxion University of Applied Sciences, and in 2013 she became an 'International Master of Sport Management' at the Johan Cruyff Institute.

[18] Mentel also worked as a motivational speaker, in the Dutch and English language;[14] and occasionally taught at a wakeboarding school.