Kevin Frost sees the world through an opening about the width of a drinking straw.
Usher syndrome has left the Ottawa athlete with roughly 4% of his vision, narrowed into tunnel vision by retinitis pigmentosa, along with less than 10% of his hearing, which he navigates with hearing aids and lip reading.
From within those limitations, Frost has become a three-time World Champion speed skater, a nine-time world record holder, a provincial blind golf champion, a TEDx speaker, and the author of Deaf, Blind Champion: A True Story of Hope, Inspiration and Excellence in Sport and Life.
Audiences on several continents know “Frosty” by the motto he repeats at the close of almost every talk:
“Never give up, and every day is a great day!”
The Diagnosis Behind Kevin Frost’s Comeback
Frost’s hearing loss surfaced in grade school, when a math teacher noticed that the young student was reading lips more than he was listening. Hearing aids and six years of speech therapy followed, while hockey refereeing became an important part of his life.
His vision began to fade in his twenties, first at night. In March 2002, doctors confirmed that he had Usher syndrome, a rare genetic condition that can cause hearing loss followed by progressive vision loss.
The diagnosis cost Frost his driver’s licence and his job. In his book, he describes the depression that followed and the difficult process of rebuilding his life with support from CNIB Deafblind Community Services and an intervenor who helped him navigate everyday tasks.
“I thought I lost everything when I went deaf and blind,” Frost has said. “But in the depths of challenges I faced, I found small salvations.”
Speed Skating Gave Kevin Frost a Second Start
The first of those salvations arrived on the ice. In his early thirties, Frost’s friend and coach, Mike Rivet, introduced him to blind speed skating and began training him as a high-performance athlete from his very first session.
Over the next 25 years, Frost won three world titles across short track and long track, 16 gold medals in international disability competition, and nine world records.
He rose to the top of the global blind speed skating rankings and reached eighth in the world, competing against sighted, hearing Masters skaters. Across his career, he has collected more than 80 medals competing against athletes without disabilities, including 18 gold medals.
His races at the Calgary Olympic Oval and a 2015 Ottawa Sun feature, “Everything’s Possible to Blind Athlete Kevin Frost,” brought his story to a national audience. His short track career was also featured by AMI.
Five Sports and One Canadian Standard
Frost has held an International Paralympic Committee B2 classification for more than 20 years across five sports.
Through Development Canada, he trained in blind rowing, blind running, and tandem cycling, often alongside Olympic champions. He placed second at the Canadian Championships in tandem cycling on both the indoor track and in road racing, and he met Canadian qualifying standards in every sport he entered.
National recognition followed his athletic accomplishments, beginning in 2005 with an international disability sports award, an honour he connects with his admiration for former cabinet minister and hockey legend Ken Dryden, whom he considers a role model.
In 2010, CTV featured Frost in its national “Believe” Olympic commercial. Five years later, in 2015, he carried the torch for the Pan Am and Parapan Am Games at the velodrome.
Blind Golf Took Kevin Frost to Cape Town
Frost picked up a golf club in 2016 and quickly found a new home among Canada’s blind golfers, with support from Ontario golf clubs and a team of coaches.
On the course, a sighted guide describes each lie, helps line up Frost’s stance, and reports where the ball lands. Frost can see only the ball sitting on the tee.
“Nigel’s dancing and I’m going, ‘I guess it went in?'” Frost told CBC News while describing a putt with his guide, Nigel Bruce.
Eight years of work produced multiple Ontario Provincial Blind Golf Championships in his division, divisional success at the ISPS Handa Canadian Blind Golf Championships, and the 2023 Overall Stableford title at the Canadian Championships.
Blind Golf Canada selected Frost to represent Canada at the 2023 World Blind Golf Championships in Cape Town, South Africa, a trip he funded through his own fundraising.
Frost served on the Board of Directors of Ontario Blind Golf and co-chaired its Outreach Committee for four years. He is also advocating for the International Blind Golf Association to adopt IPC sight classification standards, which he believes could help move blind golf closer to the Paralympic program.
Missions That Helped 29 Children Hear Again
Frost’s commitment to helping others reaches well beyond sport. Between 2000 and 2020, he participated in humanitarian missions to Mexico and Nicaragua that helped 29 deaf children receive hearing aids. The missions also provided visual aids to dozens of blind children and adults, alongside additional volunteer work across Canada and the United States.
At home in Ottawa, Frost once skated 100 kilometres along the Rideau Canal in 2009, raising $5,000 for the Rotary Home.
He has served as an honorary Lion for more than 25 years, travelling across Ontario to promote kinship and understanding.
For close to two decades, he has also fundraised for Canadian Guide Dogs for the Blind. The organization paired him with Nemo for 10 years and Lewis for nine. Lewis died from kidney disease in late 2022.
In 2023, the organization matched Frost with Woody, a black and grey Labradoodle who now guides him every day.
Honours From Parliament to City Hall
Frost’s contributions have been recognized at the local, provincial, and national levels, starting in 2010 when the United Way of Ottawa presented him with its Community Builder Award. In 2015, he was recognized in the House of Commons as a role model for deafblind Canadians.
In February 2023, Frost received the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal, with Orléans parliamentarian Marie-France Lalonde marking the occasion.
Two months later, in April 2023, Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe issued Frost a Letter of Commendation recognizing a lifetime of achievement.
He was nominated for the Canadian Disability Hall of Fame in 2024 and 2025. In April 2025, he received the King Charles III Coronation Medal.
A Life Story Shared on the TEDx Stage and in Print
Frost has delivered more than 500 motivational presentations around the world to corporations, schools, conferences, and support groups.
His TEDxAshburyCollege presentation, Blind, Deaf: The Magic in Being a Champion in Sport and in Life, carried his message to an international audience.
His story has also been featured in three documentaries, 188 newspaper articles, and 62 television interviews.
In October 2022, Frost published Deaf, Blind Champion, a memoir that gives readers a front-row seat to the moment he received his diagnosis and the years he spent rebuilding his life as an accomplished athlete, father, life partner, son, brother, teammate, and activist.
The book explores the importance of finding a supportive community and focusing on what remains possible after hearing and vision loss.
A portion of the proceeds supports Canadian Guide Dogs for the Blind and other guide dog schools.
Readers can find Deaf, Blind Champion on Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and listeners can enjoy the audiobook on Audible and Audiobooks.com. Frost’s full list of achievements, humanitarian missions, and speaking engagements is available at deafblindspeedskater.com, the website he launched in 2004.
For Frost, the purpose behind everything he does comes back to a simple message:
“Let us never forget our blind, deaf, and disabled peers. Let’s never forget why we all love sport. Competition, and kinship.”
