Mark Bathum was born with retinitis pigmentosa, the second leading cause of blindness and has been legally blind since his late 30s. Mark embraced this challenge in his late 40\u2019s and is currently the top-ranked visually impaired ski racer in the world in the downhill event, is a three time Paralympic silver medalist in the 2010 and 2014 games, is the top-ranked adaptive alpine racer in the U.S., has won eight World Cup races despite attending only half the races each year, was nominated for an ESPY and was named the Paralympian Male Athlete of the Games at the inaugural U.S. Olympic and Paralympic \u201cBest of U.S.\u201d Awards ceremony broadcast by NBC in 2014.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"