Imagine what it’s like to ski down mountains at 70 miles per hour.
Now imagine what it’s like to do that blind.
This is what I do.
And most people think that is … impossible.
I’m Danelle Umstead, and I am a blind ski racing champion, living with multiple sclerosis.
My husband Rob and I are members of the USA’s Paralympic Alpine Ski Team. Together, we compete as Team Vision4Gold, and we do the impossible every day.
I’m Danelle Umstead, Paralympian ski racing champion and motivational speaker.
At thirteen, I was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a genetic eye condition that results in total blindness.
At twenty-nine, nearly blind, my father offered to take me skiing for the first time. I stood atop a mountain in Northern New Mexico my father a silouette in front of me wearing a bright orange ski bib. I took a deep breath.
And off we went down the slope.
In the 3 minutes it took to ski down that mountain, I found my passion.
A few years later I met my husband, Rob Umstead, and with him as my guide we became the Paralympic ski racing Team Vision4Gold.
Rob and I won two bronze medals at the 2010 Vancouver Paralympic Winter Games. By year-end, I was awarded the 2010 Athlete of the Year by the National Sports Center for the Disabled.
I was on top of the world.
Then I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, a nerve disease that paralyzed half my body. I first had to relearn how to walk, and then how to ski again. In spite of this, Rob and I continued competing in Alpine Skiing World Cup races …and winning!
