Winter Paralympics 2022: Skier Patrick Jensen opens up on his degenerative eye disease and the challenge of becoming blind

Patrick Jensen has had most of his life to prepare for the day everything goes dark. He’s pragmatic, optimistic and above all else, excited at the challenge of what soon may come next. The Newcastle native was born with a congenital and degenerative eye disease; at seven he was diagnosed and last year, as a 25 year old, was told he has less than two years before he loses sight completely. “My eye condition is Retinitis Pigmentosa – my retina is deteriorating,” Jensen explained. “Towards the end of the disease, where I’m at now, it’s far more rapid. My specialist last year said I have about two years left of vision.” Stream Over 50 Sports Live & On-Demand with Kayo. New to Kayo? Try 14-Days Free Now > Jensen’s condition won’t stop him competing in Para-Alpine skiing, though it has hindered his preparation in the lead-up to Beijing – his second Paralympic Games. “This season has been quite tough, there’s been some external factors that have added extra challenges like Covid, for example,” Jensen said. “With my eye condition deteriorating rapidly it’s made it quite interesting to push through some limits with that. My goal was to make it to these Games and lay down the best runs I can do. “This is probably the last season I’ll compete as a B2. It’s all up in the air, no one really knows.” “It’s so hard to tell, though, because they say that with no actual confirmation, but we’re looking at moving me to B1, which is the fully blacked-out goggle field, next season, and start that new adventure which will be really fun.” Hearing Jensen label the experience as ‘fun’ may shock some people, but he has long since come to terms with his condition. “Even though it’s quite a rapid degeneration I’ve had my whole life to prepare for it,” Jensen said. “There were times as a kid where it felt daunting and I thought ‘why me’, but as an adult I’m looking forward to it – I know how to be a blind person now. “I have a guide dog on the way which I should be getting next year, I have a great support network around me to help through the initial phase and honestly, I’m not worried or upset about it at all.” An avid music lover growing up, Jensen was previously a drummer for Newcastle-based band George Booth. He’s recently picked up the guitar and still writes and produces “weird rap and hip-hop” in his downtime. “I grew up as a drummer so I’ve always played music whenever I can,” he said. “Now that it’s a bit hard to stay in a band (due to travel and his condition) I just do whatever I can – I find an instrument, half-learn it and then pick up another. Music is a big part of my life.” It wasn’t until the end of high school that skiing also became a big part of Jensen’s life. At the behest of his school careers adviser, Jensen travelled to a Disabled Wintersport Australia camp in 2013 and that same year, he was representing his country at the IPC Alpine Skiing World Cup in Thredbo, NSW. “I’d had nothing to do with winter sports until I was 18,” Jensen said. “I went to a scouting thing for winter sports and thought ‘they won’t make me do that’ because it seemed ridiculous. Instead, I loved it. “That season I went down for a couple of domestic camps and within the year I was travelling to Austria and racing. “Everyone went to schoolies and I went to Austria.” Mooted for a Paralympics debut in Beijing 2022, Jensen instead was an instant success on the slopes and qualified for PyeongChang 2018, where he and sighted guide Lara Falk finished 11th in the Giant Slalom VI and DNF in the Slalom VI. Jensen will have a new sighted guide in Beijing, Perisher ski instructor Amelia Hodgson, and the pair have forged an unbreakable bond since first linking in 2019. “It’s a trust I don’t think anyone can understand unless you do it,” Jensen said. “Today for example, we clocked in at over 90km/h and that’s all in Amelia’s hands. She’s telling me when to turn, when to do everything and if I don’t do what she tells me, it’s not going to work. “Every person skis different and each guide I’ve had skis different. Once you figure that out as a pair and you start to sync up, that’s when you can trust they’re putting you in the right spot. “I feel like that clicked for us six months after meeting, when we were in Switzerland doing some Downhill training. “I have complete faith in Amelia to get me down there, which is a pretty cool feeling.” Jensen said being good friends with your sighted guide is not a necessity, however both he and Hodgson agreed their partnership would not work otherwise. “I think friendship is 70 per cent of what goes into it,” Hodgson said. “It’s so important to have that connection and I think it makes a huge difference … you’re spending every minute of your day with them and if you’re not friends, it makes it way harder.” Steering a partially blind person down a steep slope at speeds not out of place on a highway is a lot of pressure to put on someone, and neither Jensen nor Hodgson shies away from that. “It’s huge pressure,” Hodgson said. “I think mainly most of the hard work is from him because it’s really hard to get into the swing of talking while you’re skiing. “Pat was really patient with me at the start – he still is – and I think him being so adaptable helps the process move much more smoothly. “This whole team inspires me but especially Pat. “The fact that I can stand on top of the hill and be so stressed and scared and for him to make me realise how much trust he puts in me and how gutsy he is to do what he does while blind, it’s super inspiring.” Jensen and Hodgson open their Paralympic campaign in the Downhill on Saturday. Nine Aussie stars to watch Australia boasts some serious medal contenders among the nine athletes competing at the Winter Paralympics starting in Beijing in Saturday. Who is set to bring home a medal and which athletes should we be keeping an eye out for? These are the Aussie Winter Paralympic stars to watch. BEN TUDHOPE Disciplines: Banked Slalom, Snowboard Cross Classification: SB-LL2 Disability: Physical impairment – left side cerebral palsy hemiplegia Paralympic Games experience: Sochi 2014, PyeongChang 2018 Ranking: Snowboard Cross SB-LL2 (=1st); Banked Slalom SB-LL2 (5th) Australian co-captain Ben Tudhope enters his third Paralympic Games as a major medal hope in both the Snowboard Cross and Banked Slalom. Tudhope became the youngest Paralympian in Australian history when he made his debut at Sochi 2014 at 14. Now 22, he remains the youngest on the Australian team but one of its most experienced. Tudhope heads to Beijing in terrific form, having secured his second Crystal Globe courtesy of two winning runs at the Big White World Cup in Canada last month. MELISSA PERRINE Disciplines: Downhill, Giant Slalom, Slalom, Super-G, Super Combined Classification: B2 Disability: Vision impairment – Cataracts, microphthalmia, nystagmus and glaucoma Paralympic Games experience: Vancouver 2010, Sochi 2014, PyeongChang 2018 Ranking: Slalom VI (4th), Giant Slalom VI (3rd), Super-Combined (1st), Super-G (5th), Downhill (3rd) Preparing for her fourth Paralympic Games, Australian co-captain Melissa Perrine has high expectations of adding to her two bronze medals from PyeongChang in 2018. The 34-year-old concedes this may be her last Paralympics – as an athlete at least – and has narrowed her focus on the slalom events in the quest for further Games glory. Perrine and sighted guide Bobbi Kelly, who will make her Paralympics debut, have a fierce friendship forged on the frozen slopes at home and abroad and are hitting form at the perfect time. SAM TAIT Disciplines: Downhill, Super-G, Super-Combined, Giant Slalom Classification: LW11 Disability: Physical impairment – Paraplegia Paralympic Games experience: PyeongChang 2018 Ranking: Slalom Sitting (48th), Giant Slalom Sitting (26th), Super-Combined Sitting (NA), Super-G Sitting (27th), Downhill Sitting (9th) Adrenaline junkie Sam Tait feels most at home hitting speeds in excess of 120km/h in his favoured event, Downhill. The 30-year-old from NSW acquired paraplegia after a motorcycle accident in 2013 and, already an avid skier, the transition to sit-skiing was a ‘no-brainer’. Tait was hitting top form through December before a crash in training ahead of the World Championships in Norway ruled him out for four weeks. The man from Mittagong has his eyes set on bettering his high watermark of 11th in the Downhill at PyeongChang and, slopes willing, making the podium. JOSH HANLON Disciplines: Giant Slalom, Slalom Classification: LW-12/2 Disability: Physical impairment- limb loss/amputee Paralympic Games experience: Debut Ranking: Slalom Sitting (32nd), Giant Slalom Sitting (41st), Super-Combined Sitting (NA), Super-G Sitting (46th), Downhill Sitting (NA) Josh Hanlon was a gun Aussie rules ruckman with a bright future as part of the GWS Giants Academy system, rising through the ranks with the likes of Jacob Hopper, Harry Himmelberg and Harry Perryman. At age 20, he came down with a severe bacterial infection which included toxic shock and sepsis, leading to dual below-knee amputations and his right hand at the wrist. Hanlon had skied just three times in his life prior to that – just over two years later, he’s at his first Paralympics. PATRICK JENSEN Disciplines: Downhill, Super-G, Super-Combined, Giant Slalom, Slalom Classification: B2 Disability: Vision Impairment – Macular dystrophy and Stargardt disease Paralympic Games experience: PyeongChang 2018 Ranking: Slalom VI (12th), Giant Slalom VI (15th), Super-Combined VI (11th), Super-G VI (11th), Downhill VI (12th) An avid music lover as a kid, it was Patrick Jensen’s careers adviser at school who pushed him towards sport. In 2014, when his mates went to schoolies, Jensen travelled to Austria to represent Australia for the first time and skiing has been a lifelong passion ever since. Entering the final stages of his degenerative eye condition, the 26 year old’s specialist has given him less than two years before going completely blind. It only empowers the Newcastle native to best his high watermark of 11th in PyeongChang, ahead of a likely switch to B1 classification before the 2026 Games roll around. RAE ANDERSON Disciplines: Giant Slalom, Slalom Classification: LW9-2 Disability: Physical Impairment – Left hemiplegic cerebral palsy Paralympic Games experience: Rio 2016 (Para-athletics) Ranking: Slalom Standing (7th), Giant Slalom Standing (28th) Beijing 2022 will be Rae Anderson’s first Winter Paralympics but not her Paralympic debut. The 25 year old will become the seventh Australian to represent at both a Summer and Winter Paralympic Games when she hits the slopes this month. Anderson competed in Para-athletics at Rio, in both Javelin and Discus. The Wamberal native is yet to win a major international medal though that could change in Beijing, where she enters as an outside medal hopeful in the Slalom. MITCHELL GOURLEY Disciplines: Super-Combined, Super-G, Giant Slalom, Slalom Classification: LW6/8-2 Disability: Physical Impairment – Left below-elbow limb deficiency Paralympic Games experience: Vancouver 2010, Sochi 2014, PyeongChang 2018 Ranking: Slalom Standing (16th), Giant Slalom Standing (7th), Super-Combined Standing (4th), Super-G Standing (13th), Downhill Standing (11th) One-time IPC Alpine Skiing World Champion and soon-to-be four-time Paralympian Mitchell Gourley has achieved just about everything there is to achieve on the international circuit – except a Paralympics medal. Primed for a breakout Paralympics at Sochi 2014 following a six-medal haul during the 2013-14 World Cup Series, Gourley recorded three DNFs and two seventh-place finishes. Medals eluded him in PyeongChang also – a fifth in the Super-Combined his best result – and thus the seasoned Games veteran now turns his attention to Beijing 2022 as a chance to finally add some Paralympics medals to his collection. BOBBI KELLY (sighted guide for Melissa Perrine) Disciplines: Super-G, Giant Slalom, Slalom Paralympic Games experience: Debut Kelly and Perrine won a swath of medals on the international circuit in the 2019-2020 season. Kelly makes her Games debut as partner Perrine considers whether this may be her fourth and last Paralympics. AMELIA HODGSON (sighted guide for Patrick Jensen) Disciplines: Downhill, Super-G, Super-Combined, Giant Slalom, Slalom Paralympic Games experience: Debut Perisher ski instructor Hodgson has worked with Jensen since 2019 and boast a trio of bronze medals in Super-G over the course of the 2019-20 season. Covid has kept the pair away from international competition over the past two years but their preparation leading into Beijing has been sound.