Miyares, 64, is president of the Disabled Businesspersons Association. He has been recognized as the world’s fastest total blind skier and sailed across the Pacific Ocean with four other people with disabilities. Miyares has Type I diabetes and will speak at the “Taking Control of Your Diabetes Conference,” on Saturday at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center.
How did you learn that you had diabetes?
I discovered I had diabetes after waking up from a diabetic coma in a military hospital in Saigon, South Vietnam [August 1968].
As an infantry sergeant, I went unconscious during a firefight. I was presumed dead and put into a body bag. Two days later, an alert medic assigned to put toe tags on the dead soldiers felt a pulse on me and rushed me onto a helicopter to the hospital.
Later I learned that many of those in my company were either dead or wounded from this combat mission.
How have you taken control of your diabetes?
The key is constant glucose testing and adjusting quickly with my Animas insulin pump. It’s all about knowing about one’s disease, having the right tools, and having a supportive team.
You’re the world’s fastest total blind skier. How fast were you going and how did you do it?
My ski helmet had a radio in it where my ski guide, skiing either alongside or behind me, would give me one-syllable commands: Left Turn, Right Turn, Left … Left … Left, Right … Right … Right, Slow Down, STOP!
In 1990 and 1991 I was clocked in downhill races at 63 mph on the turns.
And you sail?
Sailing is my true passion. I was captain of the first racing sailboat of sailors with significant disabilities to ever cross the Pacific Ocean, from Los Angeles to Honolulu. A future goal is to sail around the world, nonstop and alone. Plans are now in the works to do this in 2013.
— Scott McCabe
