Inspirational Athlete: Brian McKeever
While we all look up to people like Lindsey Vonn or Apolo Ohno who combine a lot of talent with hard work, there are some people who are just inspiring because it’s amazing that they can compete in the first place.
Canada’s Brian McKeever is one such person. Born with Stargardt’s disease, McKeever has only 10% of his vision, and what he does sees is primarily out of his peripheral vision. Previously, he has competed in the Paralympic Games, where his brother is able to ski with him as a guide.
For 2010, McKeever will be joining the small group of athletes, like swimmer Natalie Du Toit, who have participated in both the Paralympics and able-bodied Olympics. He will be the first athlete to participate in both the Winter Olympics and a Winter Paralympics.
Many of the races that he will be participating in are mass-start events, where he will be able to see other people with his limited peripheral vision. The trick for this Canadian will be trying to stay with the fastest group, and then breaking out for the win at the end.
March 10th, 2010 at 6:25 am
You have to express more your opinion to attract more readers, because just a video or plain text without any personal approach is not that valuable. But it is just form my point of view
March 11th, 2010 at 1:49 am
Update: unfortunately, Brian didn’t end up getting to skate in the 50 km mass start as planned. Canada’s other skiers were doing so well (it was a great cross-country year for North America in general) that they left him off the final roster. He should definitely be part of the Paralympics though.
March 11th, 2010 at 8:34 am
[...] impaired racers, of course have trouble seeing. You might have heard about Canada’s Brian McKeever, who was supposed to ski for Canada in the regular Vancouver Olympics. Turns out that some of [...]
March 13th, 2010 at 2:08 am
You have really great taste on catch article titles, even when you are not interested in this topic you push to read it
March 19th, 2010 at 8:08 am
[...] another slightly different note, Canada’s Brian McKeever, whom I have written about before, and was going to be the first Paralympic cross-country skier to [...]