Pete Reed: An injury, a SkiErg and the Pursuit of Progress
In September 2019, Pete Reed had just retired from full-time rowing to return to the Royal Navy. One of Great Britain’s most decorated Olympians, he won gold in three consecutive Olympics and was famous in testing for having the world’s largest recorded lung capacity.
During naval training, Reed started to feel ill and went to the hospital where he suffered a stroke in the middle of his spine. The condition is extremely rare and doctors are unsure what caused it. It left Reed paralyzed from the chest down. The Olympian was determined to make the best possible recovery.
The first step was to enter rehab, where Reed started to gain back his strength. One of the tools in his pocket?: the SkiErg. “Getting settled into rehab, I knew that I wanted to try the SkiErg,” Reed says. “There were a few reasons. I knew the movement pattern, I knew that I could do it. It's important to me that it's very accessible, so it's easy to just roll up to it, in my wheelchair and then just grab the handles and off I go.” It is hard to take the athlete out of someone like Reed, and accordingly, he made himself a plan. He started in small increments.
Here’s a collection of favorite SkiErg® workouts from the Concept2 Team. They range in length from 20 to 45 minutes. 
Concept2 was honored to have staff on the ground at the Tokyo Olympic Regatta. Oar technicians Matthias Zink from our German office and Bob Beeman from our US headquarters were there to assist with competitors' needs, whether for a last-minute tune up on equipment or for unexpected problems, like damage from travel or a collision on the course. Bob Beeman is familiar face to many of the athletes, as he's been supporting athletes at regattas all over the world for many years. Here he shares a little behind-the-scenes scoop! 
Remember how we said we love 5k workouts? Well, 10k workouts are right up there--they just require a bit more time. 
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