‘Sport was the vehicle that brought me acceptance’ – Jason Smyth on vision impairment as he dedicates Sunday’s routine to his daughters

The Irish Paralympian and his dance partner Karen Byrne will perform a Viennese waltz to John Mayer’s Daughters tonight.

Jason is legally blind, as he was diagnosed with Stargardt’s disease, which affects his vision, at the age of 7.

"Mum and Dad started to see that I was looking past things, or I would have to come up right beside the TV to start to see,” he told the Irish Independent.

“I've roughly 5 to 10pc of vision on a percentage scale. The middle part of my eye is blind.

“People ask me what I can see, but if I asked you what you can see, how do you describe that to me? Because you don't actually have anything to compare to.

“I can't see any of the audience,” he said.

He chose to dedicate his next performance to his daughters, who love dancing.

“My daughters love to dance, and even just before Christmas, I got the opportunity to go watch them dance at their performances, but I can't actually ever see them, and this is something they love.

“And I think, for me, this is the opportunity to connect with them a bit more, to step into their world a bit more, to do something that they love that I never really see them do,” he added.

Jason had found learning to accept his vision impairment “quite difficult”, especially in his teenage years, he said.

“My journey in sport was the vehicle in which I started to accept it.

“As a teenager, I hadn't accepted it, I was trying to hide it.

“Sport was the vehicle that gave me that acceptance of it and gave me the platform to then take on challenges and not see it as an obstacle but see it as an opportunity,” he added.

He also spoke of the transition from running to dancing: “I don't think I could describe myself as a dancer quite yet, but it's just so different.”

"One of the pieces I do enjoy that relates to sport is that you've got to try to achieve something and work towards it.

“And you're under pressure to do that, having the attitude to keep coming back and try,” he said.

Jason’s dance partner Karen Byrne described Jason as an “inspiration”.

"He never complains, and he really makes you realise what you have.

“We think we have problems, and this man comes in every day, puts themselves out there, doesn't want to be treated any different.

"He has brought me to a realisation that there's so much more to life, and that this show was not about dancing, if anything, it has completely changed my whole outlook on life.

"We had conversations that he doesn't see my emotion and my facial expressions, so, for me, to be able to get him to have some expression through dance was extremely difficult.

“When it came to the live show, he smiled through the whole dance, I was so emotional because I'm so proud of him.

"He's doing a great job with that because people connect with someone who’s real, who’s taken on the challenge from the bare minimum, who never danced at all,” she added.

Dancing with the Stars returns to RTÉ One tonight at 6.30pm.