Heart Attacks
In 2038 a totally blind skier races Paralympic Super-G with no guide ahead of her, only eight drones and a suit that lets her feel the mountain, and wins by enough to break the sport.
About the Piece
Emma Heart lost her sight at sixteen and went back to the mountain anyway. At the 2038 Winter Paralympics in Sion she races twice in a week: the downhill with Daniel Reed, the guide who has skied ahead of her for seven years, and the Super-G with nobody ahead of her at all. Eight drones read the course, and forty thousand tactile cells in her suit put it against her skin. The field tells her what is there. It cannot tell her what to do about it.
The feature asks who is skiing the mountain. The news report gives Emma and Daniel their medal. Then Aegis Dynamics, which built the field, wants the gold for its investors, and Big Charli and Jessica Martinez have to work out what Emma actually won. The last word goes to Emma, and to a promise.
Images are on their way.
Objects
- Who Is Skiing the Mountain?: Emma Heart is about to become the first totally blind athlete to race Paralympic Super-G without a human guide, and the argument about what is doing the skiing has already begun.
- Heart and Reed win Paralympic downhill silver for Great Britain: Five days before her solo Super-G, Emma Heart and her guide Daniel Reed win silver together in the visually impaired downhill.
- The Question: The morning after Emma Heart wins gold, Big Charli and Jessica Martinez work out what she won.
- The host allowed the applause to settle: On a television sofa, Emma Heart is asked what she wants next, and her answer is not a medal.