Rowing opens doors to Paralympics for Frost

“It’s like speedskating because it’s very precise,” says Frost, who is midway through his third rowing season. “In any sport, you can’t just learn overnight. It takes about five years minimum to really get it.”

Frost attended a selection camp for the national adaptive rowing team in May, but has since been competing in Masters competitions with able-bodied rowers from the Ottawa Rowing Club since other athletes were chosen to compete in World Cup events. “I wasn’t upset,” Frost notes. “I didn’t make the cut, but what was enjoyable about it is that it taught me how much more important technique is in all sports, but especially in rowing.”

It takes a lot of dedication – including a 4:30 a.m. wakeup for morning practices when the water is calm – to learn how to row properly, Frost adds. On top of that, there’s plenty more to learn in a competition setting, such as a recent regatta in Montreal when his team’s boat was blown into another lane by a fierce wind in rough waters. “Able-bodied people can see and hear their waves and I can’t,” notes Frost, who was told by the Canadian coach that he has plenty of potential. “She said, ‘You’re missing the two most important things in rowing – your hearing and your vision – so you’re going on something that’s never been done in the sport of rowing.’”

Frost has yet to make it onto the international stage for Canada, but there may be a few doors opening for him in the near future. Currently, adaptive rowing places athletes with different disabilities together (a leg amputee and a visually-impaired athlete could both be members of the same boat, for example), but Frost has heard the International Paralympic Committee will create a category exclusively for the visually-impaired prior to the 2012 Paralympic Games in London, England.

Frost was also recently told by a Rideau Canoe Club official that the same is true for kayaking, so he may give that sport a try as well. “Of course I want to make the Paralympic team,” says Frost, who also takes an interest in trying curling or alpine skiing. “That would be a way for me to conquer what I want to achieve. That would be the ideal way to finish.”

Frost targets the 2012 Games since that will hopefully have given him enough time to learn, train and perfect his rowing technique.

He realizes it’s still not an easy goal to achieve, especially since he has added hurdles to clear compared to other Paralympians – Frost has his hearing disability (which isn’t factored into Paralympic classification) and he also enters Masters competitions unlike younger competitors. But what keeps the 42-year-old motivated is how he can motivate others through what he achieves. “It doesn’t matter who you are, the end result you want – if you put your mind to it and you want to achieve it – it doesn’t matter if you’re disabled or able-bodied, you’ll find ways to make it happen,” Frost says. “It gives other people hope. If somebody with a dual disability can go at it with both angles, what stops you from doing what you want to do?”

Frost recently received an award from the Rotary Club International for his fundraising efforts – which included a 100-kilometre charity skate – for the Ottawa Rotary Home. He also found out recently that Alfredo – an 11-year-old Mexican boy who got hearing aids following Frost’s fundraising – has gone from zero speaking ability to an eight-year-old level in four months’ times. Frost has also started a blog at kevinfrost.wordpress.com