29-year-old Steve Holcomb piloted the four-man bobsled and won the first gold medal for America in 62 year.
Steve Holcomb has driven the four-man bobsled while he was virtually blind for a couple of years. He decided to undergo an eye surgery but the results were unexpected to him. The eye surgery was pretty successful but perhaps Steve Holcomb didn’t expect that his improved vision would interfere with his driving skills.
He then made a decision and went for the driving half blind and intentionally obscured his vision while he was piloting his four-man bobsled. The decision proved to be the right one as Steve Holcomb piloted the bobsled and made his team a gold medalist.
Steve Holcomb says that he still uses his other senses to drive the bobsled. Holcomb had been suffering from disease which impaired his vision. In 2008, Steve Holcomb underwent an eye surgery which brought his vision back but Holcomb wasn’t ready for this result. He says that many issues came back after his eye surgery.
Holcomb explains that now he can see ‘too much’. Before he underwent an eye surgery, his vision was 25 % out of 100 and couldn’t see anything, now, after the eye surgery, Holcomb says that no he could see and a lot of his driving was done by seeing and not just by its feel.
Steve Holcomb also said that his previous experience as a skier has also played a part in his success.