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Adaptive

Paralympic and PaRowlympic Successes

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Sep 21, 2021

The Paralympic Regatta concluded with exciting racing on the Sea Forest Waterway. Our team was on site to help with competitors’ needs.

The Regatta included four boat classes in three athlete classifications: PR1 Men’s Single Sculls, PR1 Women’s Single Sculls, PR2 Mixed Double Sculls and PR3 Mixed Four with Coxswain. Racing in Tokyo will be remembered historically as the first Paralympics where athletes competed over 2000 meters. (The previous distance was 1000 meters.) Continue Reading ›

Pete Reed: An injury, a SkiErg and the Pursuit of Progress

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Aug 31, 2021

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.

Pete Reed (right) training on the SkiErg
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Adaptive Athlete Michael Mills: CrossFit, Core and Concept2

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Oct 18, 2019

Wheelchair athlete Michael Mills gives practical advice to other athletes considering trying the RowErg or SkiErg: “Really, just start.”

Michael Mills says he has “found so much JOY from CrossFit and what it has given me.” Mills is in charge of the Mayhem Adaptive Online Program, a program that follows side by side with the Mayhem Athlete program created by CrossFit legend Rich Froning. Mills adapts workouts for adaptive seated and standing athletes. Continue Reading ›

Adaptive Athlete Todd Vogt: Finding Strength and Fitness with Concept2

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Oct 16, 2019

Concept2 is excited to share resources for adaptive athletes and feature the experiences of athletes who use our products. Todd's story is the first of our series of blog posts focusing on adaptive athletes.

Andy Wigren (stroke) and Todd Vogt (bow) represent the US in the PR3 Men's Pair.

Todd Vogt fell in love with the sport of rowing as a college freshman at the University of Buffalo in 1992. He was able to make rowing his career and became a rowing coach while continuing to row competitively himself. “I love the physical and mental challenge of the sport,” Vogt explains. But in June of 2018, when Vogt was diagnosed with early onset Parkinson’s disease at the age of 43, he was crushed. “I thought my athletic life was over,” he recalled.

For many adaptive athletes like Vogt, Concept2 provides options for adaptive athletes to find (or rediscover) sport and fitness. Continue Reading ›

SkiErg World Sprints—Start Your Training Now!

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Sep 13, 2019

This year’s edition of the SkiErg World sprints takes place November 7–10, 2019. This is a virtual 1000 meter race—you can participate from your home, school or club—or you can join a physical event near you. Find out more info about the SkiErg World Sprints. If you are a club or box wishing to host a Sprints event, contact joshc@concept2.com for information on submitting results. Continue Reading ›

The SkiErg for Injury Recovery

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Jun 13, 2019

I love movement and exercise, and if you're reading this then chances are you enjoy a healthy dose of movement as well. We rely on our bodies as vehicles for movement and they usually deliver, allowing us collectively to do some amazing things. Sometimes, however, bodies break down and we get injured. And when that happens it can be an incredibly frustrating thing, especially when it prevents us from moving in the way we are used to and from doing the things we love.
In this blog I will share my experience using the Concept2 SkiErg while recovering from two surgeries: one to repair a broken left fibula and one to trim a torn right meniscus. Continue Reading ›

10 Questions with Tom Darling

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Dec 14, 2018

Thomas Darling is the Director of Para Rowing for USRowing. His job is to identify and develop nine para athletes to race in the Paralympics. Tom is a three time Olympian: 1980 (boycott), 1984 (Silver Medal, Men’s 8+) and 1988 (5th, Men’s 4+). He graduated from Syracuse University in 1981 with a BA in Psychology and earned a MEd from Boston University 1991. In 2008 he started volunteering at Community Rowing in Newton, Massachusetts, with the Adaptive Rowing program and created the first Adaptive Indoor Rowing Championships (AIR-Cs) in 2009, and subsequently introduced para events at the CRASH-Bs. He was hired by USRowing as Director of Para Rowing in 2013. Continue Reading ›

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