Blind skateboarder invited to test Olympic course in Paris

    ROYAL OAK, Michigan (WXYZ) -- Athletes from across the world are flocking to Paris for the 2024 Summer Olympics Games.

It’s the second time skateboarding will be included in the sporting events. One of those athletes calls Metro Detroit home.

Nick Mullins is an adaptive skateboarder. He was invited to test the skateboard course in a demonstration skate. Grind rails, ramps, and stair aren’t the only obstacles Nick deals with while skating, he’s also completely blind.

Nick says since about 10 years old, he's had a skateboard attached to the bottom of his shoes. He says because of a skateboarding injury he lost his vision at 18 years old, and he’s hoping his trip to the Paris Games will be a vision for others to get up after the worst falls.

“I’m really excited to see how the course is,” said Nick Mullins.

7 News Detroit caught up with Nick at his home turf, Modern Skate and Surf in Royal Oak just days before he set out for Paris.

“It’s kind of like a jam format where it’s 5 to 10 people, very skilled people. they basically just fly around the park. demonstrate how well they can skate,” Nick said about the skate. He added, "it’s for adaptive skateboarding. we’re trying to get adaptive skateboarding into the olympics.”

Nick will be seeing that Olympic skateboard course in his mind’s eye. When he was 18 years old, Nick fell while skateboarding and got road rash. He said he didn’t think anything of it at the time. That road rash lead to Nick developing MRSA staph infection which put him in a month-and-a-half medically-induced coma. Nick had a 1% chance of waking up.

“It ended up ripping me retinas from the back of my eyes like wet wallpaper.” Nick added, "It was enough to be like oh there’s light in the room. that’s it. then I went in for a surgery. They helped replace some of my retina. One day I remember just opening my eyes and the light was gone."

Nick says after being in a hospital bed for weeks and he losing his ability to see, he had to relearn how to walk and function in day-to-day life before even thinking about skateboarding.

“At first it was very hard. I was kind of angry at life and upset at god — just kind of blaming everything,” Nick said.

Nine months after waking up, Nick grabbed an old friend. “Every time I put my foot in grip tape, it’s immediate just meditation.

The whole world, daily struggles, aggravations, everything just disappears,” Nick said. He continued, "it was a long rough, rough journey to get where I’m at now. lot of tears, lot of effort.”

Nick adapts by skating with a cane in his hand and listening to the sounds around him.

“The way I see in my mind, I hear everything around me but my brain is making up like a 3-D world of what’s around me inside of my head,” said Nick.

He even got the attention of Tony Hawk during a Salt Lake City skating event. Tony Hawk's 13ft vert ramp was brought to the event, Nick skated it.

Tony Hawk posted a clip of that run on his Instagram page with the caption, “An inspiring moment during the @vertalert practice last night. Nick Mullins dropped in for this solid three-piece set that included a Miller Flip. Unrelated: he’s blind.”

Nick says in Paris, he’ll check the course out a handful of times to get an idea of the setup before his July 31st demo skate.

He says he can’t wait to show the world what adaptive skateboarders can do.

“You don’t really know what you’re capable of until you put yourself there and try. You can do some very incredible things if you just get out there and try to do it,” Nick said.

He added, "the only disability is having a bad attitude. That was very impactful to me."