Great strides in skater's life

Speedskater, Kevin Frost, from Ottawa, who is blind and deaf, takes some practice runs around the oval before his races at the 16th Master's International Speed Skating Games at the Olympic Oval.

Rather than letting his disabilities slow him down, Kevin Frost has chosen to blindly but bravely take great strides in his life.

And the deaf and blind Ottawa man - one of 330 competitors in the World Masters’ International Speed Skating Games taking place at Calgary’s Olympic Oval - practises what he preaches.

“I’m the first disabled person to compete in an international able-bodied event,” the 39-year-old said on Saturday.

“My philosophy has been if someone throws you a negative, throw a positive back.”

Frost’s first life-altering health issue hit when he was just 11 when he began losing his hearing.

He learned to lip read, finished school and got a job.

In 2002, his sight began to fail and he was diagnosed with the rare genetic disorder Usher’s Syndrome, also known as retinitis pigmentosa.
 

Today, Frost has only 15% of his hearing and with 5% vision sees the world through what he compares to “looking through two McDonald’s straws.”

Although the difficult transition from life as a workaholic to trying to navigate daily life with disabilities hit him “like a brick wall,” Frost said he chose to make the most of it.

Off-ice, he’s a motivational speaker who focuses on how to be sensitive to the deaf and blind and making the best of a situation.

“There’s no sense in looking back,” the father of three said.

“I might as well work with what I have and I guess that’s the biggest lesson ... there’s always hurdles but never give up on your dreams.”

To that end, the former hockey coach began speed-skating in 2003 and has competed with sighted skaters ever since.

“Some people ask ‘What are you doing here?’ and I tell them ‘ I’m doing the same thing you are,’ ” he said.

Olympic Oval spokeswoman Bridget Cox said Frost was pretty much just another competitor at this week’s Masters’ except officials arranged to wave an orange flag - instead of ringing a bell - to indicate the final lap.

“I think it’s great,” she said.

“He’s done a lot to be on the same level with the other athletes.”

Frost placed 27 out of 31 in his age category in the Calgary competitions and set a new personal best.

Visit www.deafblindspeedskater.com for more information on Frost’s story.