The PeyongChang Winter Paralympics were a successful event for Melissa Perrine, who returned from the snowfields with two bronze medals.
One of just five Australian women ever to compete at a Paralympic Winter Games, Perrine took out the bronze medal in the Women's Combined Visually Impaired with her guide Christian Geiger, who is also her coach. The following day she won the bronze medal in the Women's Giant Slalom Visually Impaired.
Perrine lives with vision loss due to a number of congenital conditions, including glaucoma and cataracts.
Perrine joined Vision Australia Radio’s Talking Vision to chat about her Paralympic success and also what it’s like to reach speeds in excess of 100km/h on the slopes.
“I ski with a sighted guide and we’re in constant communication via a Bluetooth headset in our helmet and he feeds back to me information about turn directions, the pitch of the slope, what’s coming up and basically anything a sighted person would see and calculate how to navigate,” she told Talking Vision.
“I don’t think any speed skier can ever truly say the fear turns into something else, it’s just a matter of training and learning to deal with it and process it in a healthy way. We’re essentially doing a very dangerous sport, but we’re doing it because we love it.”
Also on this week’s Talking Vision is Blind Citizens Australia newsletter editor Joanthan Craig and a round-up of all the big news from Vision Australia recently.
Listen to the latest Talking Vision here, or on the player below: