Patrick Jensen will embrace the "ridiculous and dangerous" nature of downhill skiing when he kicks off Australia's Winter Paralympics campaign in Beijing.
Downhill ski racing: it's fast, dangerous and scary. When you're an athlete with a vision impairment, the intensity kicks up another notch.
But that's exactly why Patrick Jensen likes it.
The 26-year-old will open Australia's Winter Paralympics campaign in the men's downhill vision impaired (B2) in Yanqing on Saturday morning.
"That's the bit that I love - the scary bit," Jensen told AAP.
"It's so unsafe and hectic.
"And growing up as a disabled kid, you're always kind of sheltered, from teachers at school (though) my parents weren't too bad at sheltering me, they always let me do my own thing, hurt myself and pick myself back up again.
"But I guess being sheltered always pushed me to want to do the most dangerous things possible.
"This sport as a blind person is probably up there with one of the most ridiculous and dangerous things you can do so I absolutely love that feeling of fear and excitement of a downhill or any ski race."
Jensen and sighted guide Amelia Hodgson reached 129km/h in their third and final training run on Thursday, something the former described as "scary and fun and hectic all at once".
"The amount of emotions involved with downhill ... a lot of stress, a lot of fear to overcome, a lot of excitement - all of that, all for one run each day, dragged out over three days," he said.
"This hill in particular is one of the faster downhill courses I've ever run.
"Skiing it blind, skiing it with any disability or even as an able-bodied athlete, it's probably the most intense event you could probably do."
Jensen and Hodgson have worked together for three years, benefiting from being thrown in the deep end in Europe together just months after meeting.
"For it to work as a vision-impaired athlete, you really do need to lay all of your trust in your guide ... that takes time, getting to know that person," Jensen said.
For her part, Hodgson said she worried about Jensen while skiing but his "adaptable" nature made their partnership easy.
A "green" Jensen raced in two events at PyeongChang in 2018 and after five events in Beijing, his push for his next Paralympics is set to be a completely new challenge.
With his vision deteriorating, Jensen, who has macular dystrophy and Stargardt disease, expects to move from the B2 classification to B1 for skiers who are blind and required to wear blacked out goggles or eyeshades when they race.
"I honestly can't wait," he said.
"It's going to be a different chapter, a completely different experience, but I feel like that's where I think I'm going to really shine in my sport.
"That's what I've always done my whole life, is pushing to my next limits and then finding something else that's really hard and pushing my limits in that."
