Bobsledding
United States
When you're legally blind, your career as a driver of a 500-lb. (225 kg) sled hurtling at some 90 m.p.h. (about 150 km/h) down a winding track figures to be pretty much over. Holcomb, 29, faced this dire prognosis two years ago, when a degenerative eye condition left him with 20/500 vision. However, an experimental procedure in which doctors placed permanent lenses in Holcomb's eyes saved his sight. With his eyesight restored, Holcomb went on to win a world championship last season. This year, Holcomb won the overall World Cup crown, and his four-man team — which rides in a sled nicknamed the Night Train — could end a 62-year Olympic gold-medal drought for the Americans. Looking back, Holcomb thinks his vision problems have actually helped his performance. "One reason I developed as a driver so quickly, not being able to see, is I had to rely more on feel," he says. "Driving by feel is better." Holcomb has even found a way to replicate that sensation: "My visor on my helmet is all scratched up and dirty, and I don't plan on changing it or cleaning it. I don't want to see too much. That's too much information."