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Dr. Brian Boxer Wachler still remembers what made Steven Holcomb’s case so urgent. Holcomb was the top U.S. bobsled driver, the country’s best prospect for Olympic gold and the man responsible for steering three teammates down an ice track at speeds approaching 90 mph.
There was one major problem — Holcomb’s eyesight was failing.
“His disease had progressed to the point where he basically couldn’t see,” Boxer Wachler recalled during a television interview. “And as the driver, you can imagine that’s not really safe.”
Brian Boxer Wachler, MD, was accustomed to difficult eye cases. The world-renowned Beverly Hills ophthalmologist is a fellowship-trained cornea specialist who has built his career around treating vision problems when established technology or familiar procedures have fallen short.
“I solve problems for patients when the current technology isn’t able to help them,” he said.
Before founding the Boxer Wachler Vision Institute, he directed the UCLA Refractive Laser Center and served as an investigator in 13 U.S. Food and Drug Administration clinical trials involving vision-correction technologies. He pioneered the use of Intacs corneal inserts for keratoconus and developed his C3-R corneal cross-linking approach in 2003.
Boxer Wachler has published extensively in medical literature (over 50 peer-reviewed publications), trained other eye surgeons and delivered hundreds of scientific presentations and lectures. His books include “Modern Management of Keratoconus” and “How We Conquered Keratoconus.”
In his TEDx talk, “Fight for Sight,” he discussed patient advocacy and the resistance that can confront medical innovation.
He has also become known as a “doctor’s doctor.” Eye surgeons and physicians from other specialties have trusted him with their own vision and referred patients with complicated corneal conditions to his practice. For more than 30 years, he has remained at the forefront of vision correction and eye health.
After all these years, one case still stands apart.
It began in 2007, when Keratoconus forced Holcomb to retire from bobsledding and appeared to end the Olympic dream he had spent years chasing. Multiple specialists told him that a cornea transplant was his only remaining option. Then his team found Dr. Boxer Wachler.
When asked which patient outcome affected him most, the answer came easily.
“Restoring Steven Holcomb’s vision after his Keratoconus had robbed him of his life dream of winning an Olympic gold medal,” Boxer Wachler said.
Keratoconus Threatened More Than an Athlete’s Eyesight
Keratoconus affects the cornea, the clear outer surface that helps the eye focus light. Dr. Brian Boxer Wachler compares the cornea to a car’s windshield and its collagen structure to the beams that keep a building stable.
“The collagen is weak and it can’t hold that shape anymore,” he explained. “So the cornea starts to bulge and slip out.”
As the cornea becomes steeper and more irregular, vision can grow increasingly distorted. Patients may experience multiple images, glare, halos and difficulty seeing at night. Unlike a cataract, which clouds the eye’s internal lens, keratoconus changes the shape of a cornea that may remain clear. Glasses may eventually fail to provide adequate correction.
Dr. Boxer Wachler stresses that patients do not cause themselves to develop the disease. Once diagnosed, however, he advises them to avoid rubbing their eyes, which can accelerate the bulging, and to wear sunglasses outside.
For Holcomb, the symptoms collided directly with the demands of his job. A bobsled pilot must choose a line through hard curves and steep drops while three teammates sit behind him with little control over what happens next.
Holcomb adapted by memorizing tracks and driving through physical sensation, reading changes in pressure through the sled instead of relying entirely on sight. The skill kept him competitive while masking the severity of his condition.
Eventually, compensation was no longer enough. Holcomb consulted numerous specialists and repeatedly heard the same prognosis.
“He had been to 10 other eye doctors,” Boxer Wachler said. “Everyone told him, ‘You have to have a cornea transplant.’”
That recommendation offered no practical route back to bobsledding. Dr. Boxer Wachler said recovery could take about a year for each eye. There were also concerns about exposing transplanted corneas to the repeated shaking and force inside a sled.
The loss extended beyond Holcomb’s career. He later documented the severe depression that followed, including a suicide attempt he survived in 2007.
By the time Holcomb reached Beverly Hills, the diagnosis was clear. The treatment path was not. Dr. Boxer Wachler devised a two-part plan: stabilize the weakened corneas and restore the vision the disease had already taken.
Dr. Brian Boxer Wachler: ‘He Actually Ended Up With 20/20’
The first objective was to limit further progression of the disease. Boxer Wachler treated Holcomb with C3-R corneal collagen cross-linking, which used riboflavin, or vitamin B2, drops activated by ultraviolet light to strengthen the corneal structure.
Dr. Boxer Wachler described it as “a noninvasive way of strengthening the cornea so that it stops bulging.”
Stabilizing the corneas did not automatically restore the visual acuity Holcomb had already lost. He later returned for a second procedure in which Boxer Wachler placed corrective lenses behind the irises of his eyes.
“We did another treatment where we inserted a lens implant in his eye to restore his vision,” Boxer Wachler said. “He actually ended up with 20/20.”
The procedures performed different jobs. Cross-linking addressed the weakened corneal tissue and was intended to stop the condition from worsening. The implanted lenses corrected Holcomb’s vision. Together, they offered what the transplant recommendation could not: a path back to competition on a timeline compatible with his career.
The approach reflects a principle that runs through Boxer Wachler’s work. A diagnosis may be familiar, but the right treatment plan depends on the life of the person receiving it. “Listening to patients is important to gain insights and provide top-level care,” he shared.
Clear vision presented Holcomb with an unexpected problem. He had spent years training himself to drive by instinct and feel. Now his eyes were sending more information than he was accustomed to processing at racing speed.
Holcomb told Voice of America that the additional visual detail initially disrupted his driving. He sometimes used a scratched or fogged visor to soften what he could see and return part of his attention to the sled’s movement. Teammate Steve Mesler described the result as “the best of both worlds.” Holcomb retained the instincts developed in poor visibility, but he could see clearly again.
Restored Vision Gave Holcomb the Opportunity, Then He Made History
Boxer Wachler’s treatment did not win a bobsled race. Rather, it restored Holcomb’s chance to even compete in one.
Holcomb demonstrated the scale of his return in 2009 when he piloted Mesler, Justin Olsen and Curt Tomasevicz to the four-man world championship in Lake Placid, New York. It was the first American title in the event in 50 years.
The following year, the black USA-1 sled known as the “Night Train” arrived at the Vancouver Winter Games. The Whistler Sliding Centre was among the sport’s most demanding courses. Six sleds crashed during the first two runs of the four-man competition.
Holcomb and his teammates delivered four clean runs. They won gold, ending the United States’ 62-year wait in the event.
“Going from the lowest of lows to the highest of highs, it was such a surreal moment,” Holcomb later told CBS News. “It still seems like a dream.”
The result brought widespread attention to Dr. Brian Boxer Wachler’s work and to a disease many viewers had never heard of. CBS News, the “Today” show, People and other national outlets covered Holcomb’s recovery. The television program “The Doctors” later renamed Boxer Wachler’s cross-linking approach Holcomb C3-R in the athlete’s honor.
Their impact was also recognized at the 2010 Vision Awards. Boxer Wachler received the Jules Stein Living Tribute Award for pioneering alternative treatments for keratoconus patients facing cornea transplants. Holcomb received the Athlete of Vision Award for raising awareness that keratoconus could be treated and vision restored. Other honorees included astronaut Buzz Aldrin, actor and comedian Lily Tomlin and Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. Will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas was among the presenters.
Holcomb went on to earn two more Olympic medals at the 2014 Sochi Games. In 2025, the Night Train team was inducted into the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Hall of Fame.
Dr. Boxer Wachler continues treating complex corneal conditions, studying new approaches and teaching other physicians. Holcomb’s gold medal remains one of the most visible outcomes associated with his work, but the case also reflects his broader approach to vision problems other treatments could not fix: listen closely, identify each obstacle and develop care around the life the patient is trying to regain.
Asked what keeps him passionate about ophthalmology, Dr. Brian Boxer Wachler gave a simple answer. “I love helping people with vision problems and eye issues,” he said.
His advice to the next generation of medical professionals is just as direct: “Be open-minded. Study innovations.”
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