Steven Holcomb (1980–2017)
Author of But Now I See: My Journey from Blindness to Olympic Gold
About the Author
Steven Holcomb was born in Park City, Utah on April 14, 1980. He started competing for the United States in bobsledding in 1998, but did not qualify for an Olympic team until 2006 at the Turin Games. His rise in the bobsled world coincided with the start of his sight problems, attributed to show more keratoconus, a degenerative eye disease. Lasik surgery made his vision worse and the contact lenses that corrected his vision stopped working in 2007. After learning this, he battled depression and attempted suicide. Later in the year, he had a relatively new procedure that placed contacts permanently behind his irises to improve his sight. In 2010, he piloted a four-man bobsled team to the United States' first gold medal in the event in 62 years. He also won five world titles and was a six-time overall World Cup champion and a 60-time World Cup medalist. He wrote an autobiography entitled But Now I See: My Journey from Blindness to Olympic Gold. He was found dead in a dormitory at the Olympic Training Center on May 6, 2017 at the age of 37. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Works by Steven Holcomb
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Holcomb, Steven
- Birthdate
- 1980-04-14
- Date of death
- 2017-05-06
- Gender
- male
- Occupations
- bobsledder
- Awards and honors
- Olympic Gold Medal
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Park City, Utah, USA
- Place of death
- Lake Placid, New York, USA
- Associated Place (for map)
- USA
Members
Reviews
For several years, Olympic bobsledder Steven Holcomb (1980-2017) held two big secrets close to his vest. The first was that he was rapidly losing his vision to the degenerative eye disease keratoconus. After he came clean with his supporters and teammates, an experimental treatment restored his blurry vision to 20/20. Following this medical miracle, Holcomb and his team went on to win gold at the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver, the first such victory for U.S. bobsledders in over sixty show more years.
Holcomb's second secret was the severe, recurrent depression ("the demon") he battled as well. Readers should be forewarnedthat the narrative includes an explicit depiction of an unsuccessful suicide attempt.
This young adult book contains a lot of material about bobsledding and the intense ambition, focus, and drive an athlete needs to achieve world-class status. There's a fair amount about keratoconus as well. The narrative is, however, rather reticent about Holcomb's personal life. Most notably, the athlete does not mention any mental health treatment he might have received.
Although the title references the Christian hymn “Amazing Grace,” there’s nothing in the narrative about faith or religion, either (in other words, this is not an “inspirational” memoir).
Recommended for readers interested in winter sports. show less
Holcomb's second secret was the severe, recurrent depression ("the demon") he battled as well. Readers should be forewarned
This young adult book contains a lot of material about bobsledding and the intense ambition, focus, and drive an athlete needs to achieve world-class status. There's a fair amount about keratoconus as well. The narrative is, however, rather reticent about Holcomb's personal life. Most notably, the athlete does not mention any mental health treatment he might have received.
Although the title references the Christian hymn “Amazing Grace,” there’s nothing in the narrative about faith or religion, either (in other words, this is not an “inspirational” memoir).
Recommended for readers interested in winter sports. show less
Statistics
- Works
- 1
- Members
- 18
- Popularity
- #630,788
- Rating
- 3.5
- Reviews
- 1
- ISBNs
- 4