There are no limits for Circle Pines rower

Perseverance is Skylar Dahl’s favorite word.

They could put her picture next to it in the dictionary. Born with two club feet, Dahl refused to accept limitations placed on her. She played soccer and basketball in grade school until the pain in her feet forced her out. Then she discovered rowing.

This spring, the 2021 Centennial graduate helped the University of Virginia rowing team capture the Atlantic Coach Conference championship and place 10th in the NCAA meet as a sophomore.

Also eligible for Paralympic rowing, she’s in a group that won a meet in Paris in July and will compete in the World Rowing Championships in Serbia, Sept. 3-10, trying to qualify for the 2024 Paralympic Games.

“I was built to compete,” Dahl declared, in a film she put out last November called “The Power of Perseverance and Why it Matters” to share her story and perhaps inspire others. The film can be viewed at YouTube.com/watch?v=OVve86pKC58.

To make the film she teamed with Uncut, an organization that spotlights student/athletes’ lives outside their sport, especially those with a unique personal story. “I received an incredible amount of support and positive feedback,” she said.

Dahl was born with bilateral club feet (both in her case; in some babies it’s just one) meaning that the bones are out of the standard position. Typically, the front half of the affected foot turns inward and the heel points down.

Her early childhood was marked by surgeries, casts, braces, specialized footwear, physical therapy and trips to the Children’s Hospital. Her situation improved.

“By the age of three I was walking without casts or braces,” she said. “At that point I was wearing braces only at night.”

Dahl expressed great appreciation for all the help and encouragement she received from doctors, nurses, and therapists, but one thing rankled her a bit.

“Too much time was spent setting low expectations for me and my athletic future,” Dahl said in the Perseverance film. Such assessments “became fuel for me.”

Starting in second and third grade, she tried soccer, then basketball, but suffered broken bones in her feet competing in both sports.

X-rays showed her out-of-place bones rubbed together and eventually cracked. She played both sports for five years until “the pain came too great to enjoy those sports any longer.”

After reluctantly giving up the sports that “I had become pretty good at during my early years,” she found her true niche in the competitive world when she was a freshman — with an assist from her next-door neighbor in Circle Pines, Nancy Jannik.

“Nancy recommended I try a sport that doesn’t put so much pressure on my feet. She recommended rowing.”

Jannik grew up in South Carolina and her family was all involved in rowing, which is popular in the southeast. Dahl was intrigued.

With her parents Andy and Kari, she visited Jannik’s hometown in the summer of 2018 and checked out the rowing club, where she “hopped into a boat” and learned the basics. That was all it took. Back home, she joined Twin Cities Youth Rowing. Minnesota has a thriving rowing community, she said, despite the climate.

Rowing appears to be an upper body sport, but, the 5-foot-10 Dahl points out, most of the power is actually generated from the legs. Still, rowing took the strain off her vulnerable feet. The rowers’ feet, in both collegiate and para, are secured in built-in shoes on the angled footboard.

Dahl walks normally, which you can see in her film, but she had to give up running of any kind after her soccer and basketball ventures.

“I have learned to walk in a way that is comfortable for my feet. And in general, my walk looks basically like everyone else,” she said. Her doctors “strongly recommended” to avoid running due to the likelihood of re-injury.

While competing with Twin Cities Youth Rowing throughout her years at Centennial — where she was Student Council president, and active in National Honor Society — Dahl and her team had enough success for her to be a good prospect for college rowing.

Aiming high, she enrolled at Virginia, a powerhouse under longtime coach Kevin Sauer. Virginia has won 21 of the last 22 Atlantic Coast Conference titles and has placed in the top 10 at nationals the last five years.

In this year’s nine-team ACC meet, May 13 in North Carolina, Virginia won four of the five races. Dahl rowed on the Cavaliers’ No. 2 unit that came from behind to edge Duke for first place. At nationals, May 28 in New Jersey (won by Stanford), there were three races. Virginia’s top team placed fifth, Dahl’s foursome placed 10th and their third unit took 11th.

In Para rowing, the classes are PR1 (for rowers whose function is upper trunk only), PR2 (full trunk) and PR3 (full trunk and lower body). Rowers in PR1 and PR2 must use a fixed seat, In PR3, they use a sliding seat like in club and college rowing.

Dahl is assigned to PR3. She earned her spot on the PR3 mixed four plus coxswain team at a two-week selection camp in New Jersey.

The group placed first in the Para Rowing Regatta to Paris on July 9, comfortably ahead of teams from Italy and France, in two races at Vaires-sur-Marne, France.

Other members were Ben Washburne of Connecticut and Saige Harper, Alex Flynn and Emilie Eldracher, all of Massachusetts. They’re now gearing for the meet in Serbia, the first opportunity for crews to qualify for the 2024 Paralympic Games. Another opportunity will be held in May of 2024.

“Her college coaches have been extremely supportive,” said Andy Dahl, “of her dual ambition of being a top NCAA D-1 rower as well as an international Para rower.”

Dahl, who is majoring Psychology, with a minor in leadership, was named to the ACC All-Academic team.

Addressing what drives her, Dahl said, “Being a competitive athlete is special.” Her film’s purpose, she said, was “To ignite unlimited potential of all women and girls.”

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