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59-year-old Paralympic skier inspires in South Korea

The Olympic flame is burning bright again in PyeongChang for the Paralympic games. Among the world's finest athletes who are competing there a local stars hoping to take home the gold.
Mark Bathum

Seattle native Mark Bathum races downhill at speeds in excess of 70 miles per hour, following closely behind a skier in a neon vest. But the man in neon is not a competitor, it’s his guide.

“In this particular form of ski racing anybody with a visual impairment follows their guide down the race course,” says Mark.

Mark is a champion Paralympic Alpine Skier representing the United States in South Korea.

He and his guide, Cade Yamamoto, use Bluetooth radios to communicate throughout the course as Mark mimics his guide's every move.

“I've often times described it as a dance, or like how figure skaters have to work together for hours so they know each more, the spacing that they need to be apart.”

“If he gets too far ahead we're disqualified, if we get too close I have to slow down,” explains Mark.

He has a degenerative eye disease called retinitis pigmentosa, which is slowly and dramatically stealing his sight.

“Two primary symptoms are night blindness and progressive loss of peripheral vision so when I look at the world it's as though I'm seeing through toilet paper tubes,” says Mark.

Symptoms started when Mark was a teen, a promising Skiier who thought he was headed for the Olympics. But during the last two years training in junior racing his progress just stopped. He started making mistakes, veering off course. Frustrated, Mark quit skiing as teenager and watched his dream melt away.

Mark Bathum

“It was devastating one of those difficult adjustments to make when you don't achieve your goal particularly when you think you can,” Mark remembers.

10 years after quitting a routine visit to ophthalmologist brought the problem into focus.

“He put me through a battery of test that day and came back in the room and said based on what I'm seeing you have this eye disease and you can expect to be blind by the time you're forty,” says Mark.

He says he doesn't remember much else from that appointment except for one thing that gave him hope.

“I can remember saying to myself well someday I'll do Paralympic Alpine skiing.”

Mark waited 25 years after his diagnosis to compete at 51 years old. He's now 59 competing in his 3rd Paralympic games with just 5-degrees of peripheral vision.

But neither vision or the physical pain of a knee injury are slowing him down. The day we met Mark he was getting his final checkup at UW Medicine before heading to South Korea.

Doctor Brian Krabak says patients like Mark, inspire the rest of us by rising above life's challenges.

“That doesn't stop him from continuing to be active and from continuing to do things,” says Dr. Krabak.

Mark says he’s doing something where the limitations of hi`s disability disappear giving him a total sense of freedom. He's inspired by his fellow athletes. Teammates who compete with grace and dignity facing down their limitations without limits.

“All of us are dealt a hand in life we have to play that hand as best we can, and if that hand has a few bad cards in it, it doesn't matter, you still got to do the best you can with that hand,” Mark says.

There are 3 vision impairment categories in the Paralympic alpine skiing course.

Paralympic skiers have varying degrees of visual impairment therefore time adjustments are used to make everybody competitive.

For more on Mark Bathum or to follow his progress in South Korea visit his official Team USA athlete page.

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