Kelly Gallagher, for Great Britain, gets this women's visually impaired Super Giant slalom competition underway.
Smoothest track. Early starter. Kelly Gallaghger sets the pace.
Mum friends and family all in the crowd.
Ever the gold! This time!
So yes there is only two in the world mine and Charlotte's, because
she is the guide and I am the athlete. And then a little bit of braille for people... And then this whole texture
that's not just pattern so it's lovely. And then it's got the same around the outside of it.
Oh, no, it's the same...
Mum, did I not have a really horrific picture of me with, like, glasses on?
(Mum giggles) I found it, Kelly!
Oh, I'm so glad you did! Finally getting contact lenses,
so I was pretty excited about that. This is the one I don't mind being on display
but this one I tried to ditch, because err...
When I was about four years old
there I realized that I was markedly different from
other children, and because in my own home I had never felt
a difference; my mum treated me with love and my dad treated with encouragement and I
was able to do whatever I wanted to do,
so I wasn't held back from doing anything . But when I went to school I kind of
figured out that...I was surprised to see the other children
could see what the teacher was writing on the board
and I was surprised to find that the other children didn't have difficulty
when we went out to play at break time.
And that's probably the only time I've really struggled is
at school when when there's been a difference like that. Because I never had
perfect eyesight
I've never been able to explain in terms of comparison,
but and I find it hard now not see to see you interviewing me or
I find it very hard to notice anything when we're on snow but Charlotte's fluorescent orange bib.
Its like there is just so much light in my eye that you just want to kind of close it for a bit
of a rest,
and then I have a lot of difficulty in making out shapes I see kind of shapes
and blurs
and colours rather than clear images.
It was demonstrated when I was
little: my dad had become a commercial airline pilot
and worked all his life to achieve what he really wanted to do.
My family background that had seen
my mum and dad working together for something that they wanted
that encouraged me to be able to pursue what I wanted to do.
I applied for jobs, as every graduate does.
I was lucky to get a job within the Northern Ireland Civil Service
as a statistician and it was really great, and I guess
I think of other countries in the European Union and around the world,
I've been really lucky that in our laws I'm not discriminated against even
though
I have a disability kind of thing with my eyesight.
I've been really lucky with this assistive technology within
the workplace that means that I can work in the same way as everyone else can on
a computer, and
work with with numbers and a big dataset, and that
I'm not, although I would probably pick tasks and
positions and posts that actually suit me better with my skills, that I'm not
discriminated against or
held back because of my eyesight.
And nobody kind says "You won't be able to do that job" and or "that bit of
work is closed off for you because you cannot do it,"
it would be more it's all open to me kind of thing, so that is
really encouraging.
(British national anthem playing)
(Television commentator speaking)
... In November 2009...
So my career breaks are coming off, it is nearly done now. I never thought I'd be
off work for five years but, yeah, it's been really good because since then
I have competed full-time and we really progressed, whereas
guiding in the UK when you're a racer
and you skied with a guide it was thought of as somebody who was a carer, just
someone who went out with a blind person,
and now UK Sport, which is a Government-backed
sport development agency, is
recognizing the guide as a fellow athlete
and somebody who needs to be of an athetic standard. Charlotte,
the girI that guides me, is an ex-ski racer herself
and is still racing with me at 23.
My hopes and dreams for ua all as humans, as a society,
is that we stop seeing things as negative.
There are parts of albinism that really need to be looked at so
we really need to help take care of... if someone has a lack of melanin in their
skin
there's dangers towards the sun on because the sun is not going anywhere, we need
to protect that.
That is definitely something that I would be
encouraging everyone to do: is to find a way to protect their skin and not be
vulnerable to different types the cancers.