The bumps and bruises Kevin Frost has picked up learning to speed skate really don't bother him that much. Before he took up his new sport as a mostly blind and deaf athlete, he was a referee who endured his share of name calling, being spit at and having pucks fired his way by irate hockey players.

Frost, 36, is a speedskater with 10 per cent tunnel vision. A sound has to register at least 85 decibels, the equivalent of average street traffic, before he can hear it.

"I've been skating for 25 years," said the Orléans father of three. "I have no fear of falling. Maybe it's my training as a (hockey) referee...I'm trying to prove that someone with a disability can do this if they have the proper training."

Frost has Usher's Syndrome, a genetic disorder that, in his case, first came to people's attention when he was 11 years old. Rather than hear what was going on around him, he learned to read lips.

Two years ago, his first serious bout of night blindness during a trip to a bar with a group of friends convinced him he needed to get his eyes checked. At that time, Frost had 19 per cent sight. Now it's 10 per cent of normal..

Just before Christmas, the family's chihuahua and pomeranian had a new member added to the pack in the form of Nemo, a two-and-a-half-year-old black labrador retriever trained in Manotick by Canadian Guide Dogs for the Blind.

"You never know what's going to happen," Frost said. "One day you're a workaholic. The next day, the doctor is taking your driver's licence away."

Getting involved with the National Capital Visual Impaired Association put a paddle in his hands last summer as a part of a Nortel Networks Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival. The team finished first in their category after only three months of practice time together.

Now that it's too cold to paddle, Frost trains in a sport not many blind people have adopted. He dreams of one day representing Canada as a speedskater at the Olympics, although the challenge at this point may be more political than physical.

The International Paralympic Committee doesn't include blind speed skating in its list of winter sports. The games only list ice sledge hockey, wheelchair curling and downhill and cross country skiing as winter sports and the Special Olympics are limited to athletes with mental disabilities.

"That has to come from the paralympic committee at the international level," said Sophie Castonguay, the media relations person for the Canadian Paralympic Committee, referring to the possibility of opening up blind speed skating as a new sport.

"There has to be enough people at the international level to hold a competition. Who knows, he may be the one to initiate it."

Taking up speed skating puts Frost into the category of a rare breed, said Ian Hennigar, the executive director for Speed Skating Ontario. There are a couple of blind speed skaters in Quebec who compete on a regular basis. Meet organizers substitute the usual black course markers with orange ones.

If Frost starts competing, race officials may have to come up with a new way of marking the course. His hearing is good enough to hear the starting gun, but he can't hear the bell used to signal the last lap of a race. And competing is something he does plan to take up.

Since Usher's Syndrome put him on long-term disability and a fixed income, Frost has started looking for sponsors to cover some of his travel expenses and equipment costs. The Ottawa Gloucester Sports Club and Lacroix Sports have already jumped on board as two of his main supporters.

In the meantime, Frost has been giving back to the community, after getting help with the biggest adjustment of his life from the Canadian National Institute for the Blind. One way has been to teach Ottawa Police officers how to act appropriately when someone, who is deaf and blind, is not responding to them.

The fact that Frost has decided to devote his time to training both short and long track may make him - if at least not unique - one of the few people in Canada sinking their blades into the sport as a deaf/blind athlete.

"We do have one completely deaf athlete on the national team at this point," said Roch Pilon, the manager of communications and marketing services for Speed Skating Canada. "It doesn't mean that because there's nothing at this point that there will be nothing in the years to come. He could be the ground breaker.

"Who knows what could happen in two, three, four years. I hope it's something he continues to pursue."

 link to article in The Weekly Journal's archives