UW grad Mark Bathum will compete in his third Paralympic Games in Pyeongchang beginning with the men's super-G race on Saturday. Bathum, who is legally blind, suffers from retinitis pigmentosa and skies with the help of a guide.
Mark Bathum was 28 years old when his eye doctor tested his peripheral vision and told him he had a degenerative eye condition called retinitis pigmentosa that would likely render him blind by age 40.
“There wasn’t a whole lot more I remember about what he said. Because once you get the first word, the rest is a bunch of noise rushing past your ears,” said Bathum, who, in his youth, was a national-caliber ski racer.