Sunday, Wikinews sat down with Australian blind Paralympic skier Jessica Gallagher and her guide Eric Bickerton who are participating in a national team training camp in Vail, Colorado.
((Wikinews))  This is Jessica Gallagher. She's competing at the IPC NorAm cup this coming week.
((WN))  You're not competing?
((WN))  You're just here?
((WN))  So.  Your guide is Eric Bickerton, and he did win a medal in women's downhill blind skiing.
((WN))  Despite the fact that he is neither a woman nor blind. 
((WN))  The IPC's website doesn't list guides on their medal things. Are they doing that because they don't want — you realise this is not all about you per se — Is it because they are trying to keep off the able bodied people to make the Paralympics seem more pure for people with disabilities?
((WN))  We've been having a great debate about whether or not you've won a medal in women's blind downhill skiing. 
((WN))  I found a picture of you on the ABC web site. Both of you were there, holding your medals up. The IPC's web site doesn't credit you. 
((WN))  One of the things that was mentioned earlier, most delightful about you guys is you were racing and "we were halfway down the course and we lost communication!" How does a blind skier deal with...
((WN))  What race was that?
((WN))  I couldn't imagine anything scarier than charging down the mountain at high speed and losing that communications link. 
((WN))  I asked the standing guys upstairs: who is the craziest amongst all you skiers: the ones who can't see, the ones on the mono skis, or the one-legged or no-armed guys. Who is the craziest one on the slopes?
((WN))  You have full control over your skis though. You have both legs and both arms. 
((WN))  The two of you train together all the time?
((WN))  Of the two sport, winter sports and summer sports person, how do you find that balance between one sport and the other sport?
((WN))  What things went wrong?
((WN))  Do you prefer one over the other? Do you say "I'd really rather be out on the slopes than jogging and jumping the same...
((WN))  I heard you were an average snowboarder. How disappointed were you when you when they said no to your classifications?
((WN))  Yes
((WN))  So you also snowboard?
((WN))  So she does a lot of sports and you also do a crazy number of sports? 
((WN))  Summer sports as well as winter sports?
((WN))  Yes. 
((WN))  That's a lot of sports! Does Jessica need guides for all of them?
((WN))  Most of us have played sport all our lives, but there's a difference between playing sport and playing sport at a high level, and the higher level you go, the more specialized you tend to become. And here [we're] looking at two exceptions to that.
((WN))  When you go to the pub, do your mates make fun of you for having a medal in women's blind skiing?
((WN))  Going to a completely different issue, blind sports have three classifications, that are medical, unlike everybody else, who've got functional ability [classifications]. You've got the only medical ones. Do you think the blind classifications are fair in terms of how they operate? Or should there be changes? And how that works in terms of the IPC?
((WN))  That affected you in Beijing.
((WN))  On some national competitions they have a B4 class. Do you think those should be eligible? In terms of the international competition?
((WN))  There's a level down, it's not used internationally, I think it's only used for domestic competitions. I know the UK uses it.
((WN))  Veering away from this, I remember watching the Melbourne Cup stuff on television, and there you were, I think you were wearing some hat or something. 
((WN))  Are you basically a professional athlete who has enough money or sponsorship to do that sort of stuff? I was saying, there's Jessica Gallagher! She was in London! That's so cool!
((WN))  But if you're not getting paid to be a sponsor for all that is awesome in Australia, what do you do outside of skiing, and the long jump, and the javelin?
((WN))  That's very cool. Eric, I've read that you work as a guide in back country skiing, and all sorts of crazy stuff like that. What do you do when you're not leading Jessica Gallagher down a ski slope?
((WN))  You like that? You find it fulfilling?
((WN))  Has it changed over the last few years?
((WN))  Being a guide in general? How things have changed or improved, have you been given more recognition?
((WN))  Are you guys happy with the media coverage on the winter side? Do you think there's a bias — obviously there is a bias towards the Summer Paralympics. Do the winter people get a fair shake?
((WN))  Nothing like winning a medal, though, to lift the profile of a sport. 

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Wikinews interviews Australian Paralympic skiers Jessica Gallagher and Eric Bickerton