Macmilton "Mac" Marcoux (born 20 June 1997) is a Canadian
Paralympic alpine skier who won three titles at the
IPC Alpine Skiing World Cup
The World Para Alpine Skiing World Cup (previously called the IPC Alpine Skiing World Cup) is an annual circuit of elite Paralympic alpine skiing, disabled alpine skiing competitions, regulated by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) and t ...
at the age of 15. With
guide
A guide is a person who leads travelers, sportspeople, or tourists through unknown or unfamiliar locations. The term can also be applied to a person who leads others to more abstract goals such as knowledge or wisdom.
Travel and recreation
Exp ...
Robin Femy, he won three medals in
alpine skiing at the 2014 Winter Paralympics
Para-alpine skiing, Alpine skiing at the 2014 Winter Paralympics was held at the Rosa Khutor Alpine Resort near Krasnaya Polyana, Sochi, Krasnodar Krai, Krasnaya Polyana, Russia. The thirty-two events occurred on 8–16 March 2014.
Events
S ...
, including gold in the
men's visually impaired giant slalom. He also has numerous awards including being inducted into the
Sault Ste. Marie Walk of Fame. He has an older brother and a younger sister. He also enjoys riding BMX and mountain bikes.
Personal life
Mac Marcoux was born on 20 June 1997 in
Haviland Bay, Ontario. He resides there with his parents and two siblings, an older brother and a younger sister. He started skiing at the age of four. He also rode
BMX
BMX, an abbreviation for bicycle motocross or bike motocross, is a cycle sport performed on BMX bikes, either in competitive BMX racing or freestyle BMX, or else in general street or off-road recreation.
History
BMX began during the ea ...
bikes and raced
go-karts
Kart racing or karting is a motorsport discipline using open-wheel, four-wheeled vehicles known as go-karts or shifter karts. They are usually raced on scaled-down circuits, although some professional kart races are also held on full-size motor ...
. In 2006, he started losing his sight due to
Stargardt disease
Stargardt disease is the most common inherited single-gene retinal disease. In terms of the first description of the disease, it follows an autosomal recessive inheritance pattern, which has been later linked to bi-allelic ABCA4 gene variants ...
,
a
degenerative condition, and became legally blind in 2007. He said: "We've always been a racing family from the beginning. It's how I've grown up. Going fast was just a part of it. The faster you go the more fun it is".
After Marcoux had lost his vision, his brother Billy Joe (B.J.) Marcoux decided to put his college education on hold in order to assist him with skiing.
Alpine Canada
Alpine Canada () is the national governing body for alpine, para-alpine and ski cross racing in Canada. Alpine Canada represents coaches, officials, supporters and athletes, including the racers of the Canadian Alpine Ski Team, Canadian Ski Cros ...
introduced them to a new kind of skiing called
Para-Alpine. They were inspired by the McKeever brothers to do visually impaired para-alpine. Other than the Paralympics, his brother B.J. has been his