From the Providence Journal

HUBBARD SETS ‘SIGHTS’ ON US TEAM

Brian Hubbard departs today on a journey he hopes will take him to Innsbruck, Austria, next year.

Hubbard, 36 and legally blind,for twenty years, will spend this week in Ironwood, Mich., skiing for a place on the US National Team that will competein the Handicapped Olympics next January. The US Association for Blind Athletes will pick its delegates based on their performance at the Indian Head Ski Area.

Hubbard also will ski in the National Handicapped Ski Championships at Squaw Valley, Calif., March 21-26, as a result of his performance in the Northeast Regionals slalom and giant slalom last weekend at Mt. Sunapee.

A clinical social workerin Newport, Hubbard suffers from retinitis pigmentosa, an eye disease in which pigmentation is genitically inherited on the outer edge of the retina and spreads inward. Legal or total blindness, tunnel vision, and night blindness and hearing impairment are among the results of the disease.

"Making the national team means a lot to me. It would be a personalaccomplishment, "Hubbard saidFriday. "Ihad always been involved in athletics, so when the problems with my eyes developed, I felt deprived."

A skier for 28 years, Hubbard played hockey until he was 16.

"It was a very devastating experience when I had to quit." He said.

Hubbard retained enough sight (His field of vision now is 10 per cent, "tunnel" about 6 inches wide. Put your hands on either side of your eyes, and you will get an idea of Hubbard’s field of vision.) to continue skiing through prep school and college. He quit five years ago because of the demands of his job.

But a newspaper story on Paul DiBello, a double amputee who would win four gold medals in World Cup Handicapped skiing in Switzerland, inspired Hubbard to enter the 1982 Regionals. So without any training, with outdated equipment, and with encouragement from DiBello, Hubbard won the giant slalom. Then he skied in the Nationals in Winter Park, Colorado.