Jensen & Jackson finding their groove

This was the ultimate trust fall.

Visually impaired Paralympic skier Patrick Jensen was tucked into the slipstream of his new guide, Ethan Jackson, charging down the slope at full speed, when Jackson tumbled. Jensen then lost his own bearings, too, crashing into the net barriers edging the world championship course.

This would be a defining moment for the newly established pair, in Espot, Spain. Because just a couple of days later, bruised but not broken, they lined up together again to compete in the Giant Slalom.
The “nasty crash” as Jensen describes it, set them back a little, but it didn’t beat them.

“For vision impaired [athlete] and guide, it's just time on snow together that really builds the bond of trust and knowing how each other skis,” Jensen says at the end of his first full-season with new guide Jackson. “So yeah, we're still improving every day that we're on snow together. But it came pretty naturally for us as a pair, which is good.

"It was a huge season, there was lots of highs and lows. But I feel Ethan and I achieved a lot of the goals that I'd set out in the start of getting stronger together, being new.”

Jensen was seven when he was diagnosed with macular dystrophy and Stargardt disease, causing 70 per cent blindness in his right eye and 30 per cent in his left.

The 26-year-old from Newcastle, NSW, has now represented Australia at two Paralympic Games, including five events with guide Amelia Hodgson at the 2022 Winter Paralympics in Beijing.

It was Hodgson who linked Jensen and Jackson together, with the pair aiming towards the 2026 Paralympics in Milano-Cortina.

“Through Pat's past guide [Hodgson], I was asked to try this out and I haven't looked back since,” says Jackson, who has been skiing since he was three and represented Australia for several international seasons.

“I'm still learning every day. There's so many different parts about being a guide that's new, that can't really be taught. Only by doing can you really figure it out. I had a little talk with his past guide, we had a little practice sessions … but the only way you're going to learn how to do it really is to give it a go.”

For Jensen, who enjoys playing drums and guitar, he’s confident the pair will continue to find their own rhythm. In the meantime, he’s looking forward to the off-season in Australia.

“I guess just getting my body good and fit strong again and healthy and lots of downtime catching up with family and friends and stuff at home. Getting my head in the right space for some more competition [next year].”