Libby Clegg suffers from a debilitating eye condition called Stargardt, but it won't stop the Paralympian from putting on an amazing show on the ice rink
January 12, 2020 - 18:04 GMT Aisha Nozari Dancing on Ice star Libby Clegg will spend the next few weeks strutting her stuff on the ice, and the Paralympian certainly won’t be letting her deteriorating eyesight stop her. The 29-year-old, who is registered blind, has Stargardt’s Macular Dystrophy disease, a deteriorating eye condition that has left the athlete with only slight peripheral vision in her left eye.
Libby, who won silver at the 2008 Summer Paralympics and gold in Rio at the 2016 Paralympic Games, described her eyesight as being"like looking at a pixelated computer screen or a scrunched-up firework" when speaking to The Daily Mail. She added:"I have some peripheral sight – barely any – and with what little sight I do have I was able to use to follow the lines on the track."The star athlete wasn't born blind, however, started to lose her eyesight at the age of nine.
MORE: Dancing On Ice partners Ian 'H' Watkins and Matt Evers receive Ofcom complaints for same-sex routineMORE: Dancing on Ice star Maura Higgins reveals she and Curtis don't spend as much time together as she'd like amid 'curse' claims But that's certainly not stopping Libby from giving it her all on the rink. Speaking to The Radio Times, Libby explained her learning process, and added that she's relying on touch and verbal communication. The sports star said:"It’s been a learning process. On the track I run with a guide runner and we’re attached all the time, but basically it’s like learning a different vocabulary to communicate.
She continued:"Myself and my partner Mark Hanretty use touch and verbal communication. I’m not as bad as I thought I was going to be, but it’s not as easy as it looks. It’s a lot harder than I thought it’d be, it’s very technical."
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