2024 Paralympics
Follow Todd’s Journey
After an amazing summer of rowing which culminated in a 2nd place finish in the PR3 mixed double scull event (PR3 mixed 2x) at the World Rowing Championship, I’m ready for more.
The goal for this year is to earn a spot on the US Paralympic Rowing Team and win a medal at the 2024 Paralympics in Paris, France. I’ve returned to serious training now here in Portland which is about 20-25 hours a week of rowing, strength training, cycling, and other activities. A typical day has me rowing for approximately 90’ on the water in the morning, followed by a weight session and more cardio training such as cycling, using the rowing machine. I’ll do this six days a week with Sundays off for rest and recovery.
The next big event on the calendar is the USRowing Paralympic Selection Camp to pick the rowers who will be on the US Paralympic Team in Paris. The camp will run for several weeks in January in Sarasota, Florida. The camp will likely have 7 or 8 guys competing for three spots on the team. All my time and energy now will be dedicated to being completely ready to go once camp starts.
After camp, I’ll return to Portland and hopefully return to training. At some point in late spring I’ll hopefully relocate to Boston, Massachusetts to join up with my teammates for final preparation for the Paralympics. All of these details are both exciting and challenging and I’m looking forward to putting in the work and getting to Paris!
Hi, I’m a Paralympic Rower with Parkison’s Disease. I was on the US Paralympic Rowing Team last summer at the 2023 World Rowing Championships in Belgrade, Serbia, finishing in 2nd place in the PR3 mixed double sculls event. My goal is to represent the US next summer at the 2024 Paralympics in Paris, France, and to win a medal.
- Todd Vogt
Belgrade, Serbia 2023
This past summer I represented the US in the PR3 mixed double sculls event (PR3 mix 2x) at the 2023 World Rowing Championships in Belgrade, Serbia, alongside my partner, Gemma Wollenschlager. It was a wild and fun adventure. Our training camp in Boston, Massachusetts, was brutal with many hard days. I was happy to survive the last couple weeks in one piece and felt ready to take on the world.
We arrived in Belgrade a week prior to our preliminary heats to acclimate to conditions. Unfortunately I picked up a bad cold on the flight to Europe. This made the first week in Belgrade a struggle while training on the racecourse and by the time our preliminary heat started I was feeling slightly better. For our heat, only the first place crew would directly advance to the final on Friday. We finished in 3rd in the heat with a solid time and would have to race in the repechage on Wednesday. We won our repechage comfortably on Wednesday, and would be racing for medals in the final on Friday. Luckily by Friday, I was feeling good and was ready for the big race. The times for all the crews in our event were very close and we expected a tough race. The conditions were challenging for the final with gusty winds and rougher water, but we were prepared for this, as training on the Charles River in Boston was often windy and choppy.
At the beginning of the race all the crews were tightly bunched together. At 500 meters into the race Australia was in the lead, Germany was second with us right behind them in 3rd. We started to push hard and moved into second place and were moving on the Australia boat. I was a little surprised at how well we were doing and was expecting a big move from the trailing crews. At the halfway point of the race we continued to move away from the boats behind us and were still reeling in Australia. At the 1500 meter mark and with only 500m to go, Australia started to move away. France had now moved into 3rd place, but were quite a ways behind us. My focus at this point was to keep my rowing clean to avoid mistakes. We finished in 2nd and I was both elated and exhausted. Being on the medal stand in front of teammates and relatives was amazing.
I had a fantastic partner in Gemma Wollenshclager, as she’s one of the best female para rowers in the world.
Racice, Czech Republic 2022
During the summer of 2022 I raced at the World Rowing Championships in Racice, Czech Republic in the PR3 mixed double sculls event (PR3 Mixed 2x) with my partner, Pearl Outlaw. We trained here at home in Portland, Oregon, starting in mid-March. We trained hard all spring and summer here at my home club, Portland Boat Club and the training went well with Pearl and our Coach, Susan Wood.
We left for the Czech Republic in late August with a week to acclimate and to train on the racecourse. We stayed in Prague, which was a beautiful city to see. In our preliminary heat we finished in 4th place and were excited to race for medals in a few days in the final. We ultimately finished in 5th place in a good race. Although we were both disappointed with the outcome, as we both were hoping for medals, we felt we raced the hardest and best we could.
