Skiing is my life, says visual impairment guide Brenzel

YANQING, Beijing, March 1 (Xinhua) -- For vision-impaired Alpine skiers, guides are their "eyes".

Under guide Paula Elia Brenzel's help, German skier Noemi Ewa Ristau clocked one minute and 39.07 seconds in the women's downhill and took sixth place in the training session of the upcoming Beijing 2022 Paralympic Winter Games here on Tuesday.

"Skiing is my life, and when I met Noemi, I was inspired when I saw her ski from the slope smoothly," Brenzel told Xinhua.

Brenzel, 22, became Ristau's guide after the 2018 Paralympics. It was her first time training at China's National Alpine Centre.

"I think this is a really cool course. They have flat parts and difficult parts, you have liked a little bit of everything. It was a lot of fun. I really like the slope," the 22-year-old said.

"You can really go at the edge of the ski and have good turns. I think we have a good run today and we expect the next training day," she added.

As a guide, Brenzel should put on a yellow shirt before the start, during the race, she can communicate with her partner through the headsets.

"I don't tell her that much, she can see 2%, so sometimes she can see a little bit of me when we go, I just say 'left','hold' or 'right' and when she went on the flat or the difficult part,"

"My job is to get her really close to me, so we have just a small distance between us. That's how it works," Brenzel said.

Brenzel and Ristau spent about 120 days together each year, the guide told Xinhua that she is a professional guide.

"It was such so much fun and the corporation with Noemi, that's just I'm very excited. And the Germany team is very cool, I have nice experiences in the team," the German said.

"I think for the visually-impaired athlete, it's really important to have one guide they're focusing on. It is teamwork and the disabled athlete can't change the guide all the time."

When Brenzel arrived at the Yanqing Paralympic village, she was very excited.

"The food is good and I really enjoy it. I never believe I would be at the Paralympic Games, I am super excited," Brenzel said.

Ristau's eyesight began to deteriorate at age 12 as a result of the effects of Stargardt disease.

"By the time I was 18, I was virtually blind. Without the disease, skiing would probably remain a hobby. After my eyesight got worse, it was like my body could feel something again by skiing," Ristau said.

When talking about the goal, Ristau wanted to win a gold medal at the 2022 Paralympic Winter Games.

Although Brenzel didn't mention her goal, no one doubted that she would spare no effort to help her partner reach the highest podium at the upcoming major event.