Holcomb, Steven
American athlete
Steven Holcomb, (born April 14, 1980, Park City, Utah, U.S.—found dead May 6, 2017, Lake Placid, New York), American bobsled pilot whose impressive results include a gold medal in the four-man event at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver.
As a youth growing up in Park City, Utah, Holcomb spent many years Alpine skiing before deciding in 2002 to try professional bobsledding. That same year, at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah, he served as a tester on the bobsleigh course. In 2004–05 he was named pilot for the U.S. team. He won the overall two-man World Cup title in the 2006–07 season and finished second in the four-man. He first competed in the Olympics at the 2006 Winter Games in Turin, Italy, finishing in 6th place in the four-man event and in 14th place in the two-man.
In 2001 Holcomb was diagnosed with keratoconus, a degenerative eye disease that affects the cornea and distorts vision. (He later admitted that he had come to rely on feel—rather than sight—to navigate bobsleigh courses.) In an attempt to avoid traditional cornea-transplant surgery, he underwent radical treatment options, including surgery in 2008 to place a corrective lens behind each iris; his vision eventually reached 20/20.
He made a spectacular comeback in the 2009–10 season, winning the overall World Cup title in both combined and four-man. At the 2010 Vancouver Games, Holcomb helped capture the first four-man Olympic gold medal for the United States since 1948. Although he had less success in the 2010–11 season, he returned to form at the 2012 world championships, earning gold in the four-man event and as a part of a mixed team. In addition, his victory in the two-man was the first for the United States at the worlds since that event began in 1931. Highlights from the following season included a bronze medal in the four-man event at the 2013 world championships. Holcomb won two bronze medals at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, as part of the American two-man and four-man teams.
Holcomb cowrote (with Steve Eubanks) the memoir But Now I See: My Journey from Blindness to Olympic Gold (2012).
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