Behind the Blades: Todd Vogt Q&A (2 min read)

A story of defiance, determination and the power of refusing to stop

Q: Take us back to 1992. A poster outside your dorm room. What happened?

A: I saw a flyer outside my freshman dorm room at the University of Buffalo. It said "get fit, make friends”. I went to the meeting not knowing anything about rowing. After the first practice I was completely hooked. Rowing rewarded hard work and demanded the ability to deal with pain. For someone who had never found his sport, that was everything.

Q: You rowed for over two decades. What did it mean to you beyond competition?

A: It was my identity. Completely. I rowed throughout college, competed in masters events for twenty years and coached at every level from juniors to collegiate. Rowing was not something I did. It was who I was.

Q: Then something changed while training in 2017. What did you notice?

A: My technique felt off. I was unusually tired and weak. A tremor appeared in my left hand. My left arm stopped swinging when I walked. I knew something was not right.

Q: The diagnosis. How did that land?

A: Like cold water. Young Onset Parkinson's Disease, just before my 44th birthday. My first thought was that I was done rowing competitively. That was depressing in a way that is hard to describe. So much of my life and my sense of self revolved around the sport. I did not know who I was without it.

Q: But you did not walk away.

A: No. I gave myself a few months to process it. Then I started thinking differently. I knew about para rowing. So I started researching times and erg scores of the top para rowers internationally. And I realised something. I was going that fast a year or two before my diagnosis. A thought appeared that I could not shake. Maybe this is still possible.

Q: What did PRF make possible that you could not have done alone?

A: PRF awarded me a Travel and Training Grant to compete at the 2022 World Rowing Championships. That sounds straightforward but what it actually meant was this: the door to the world stage opened. The difference between talent and opportunity is often just one person willing to help. PRF was that person. Without that grant I do not know if that door stays open.

Q: You went on to represent Team USA four times. What does that mean to you?

A: It is honestly surreal. I went from thinking my rowing life was over to standing on the start line at the World Rowing Championships and the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games wearing the red, white and blue. Parkinson's opened a door I did not know existed. That is a strange and wonderful thing to be able to say.

Q: Parkinson's is progressive. How do you keep going?

A: I have had to get creative. I cannot run much anymore. So I use the stair climber, the ski erg, uphill treadmill hiking with a weighted backpack. Parkinson's has actually made me a smarter athlete. I have to think about everything more carefully. And rowing helps. That is the best I feel, right after I row.

Q: What do you want people with Parkinson's to take from your story?

A: That the diagnosis is not the end of the story. Get out there. Move. Fight. The water does not care what your body has been told it cannot do. Neither should you.

Q: What does PRF mean to you now looking back?

A: PRF showed up when it mattered. Not with words. With action. A grant that opened the world stage. That is what changes lives. The quiet, practical things that make the impossible possible.

The catch does not wait. It does not negotiate. Neither did Todd.