Brian McKeever

Brian McKeever
Medal record
Representing  Canada
Paralympic Games
Cross-Country Skiing
Gold 2014 Sochi 1 km sprint Visually Impaired
Gold 2014 Sochi 10 km Free Visually Impaired
Gold 2014 Sochi 20 km Freestyle Visually Impaired
Gold 2010 Vancouver 1km Sprint Visually Impaired
Gold 2010 Vancouver 10km Classic Visually Impaired
Gold 2010 Vancouver 20km Freestyle Visually Impaired
Gold 2006 Torino 5km Freestyle Visually Impaired
Gold 2006 Torino 10km Classic Visually Impaired
Gold 2002 Salt Lake City 5km Classic Visually Impaired
Gold 2002 Salt Lake City 10km Freestyle Visually Impaired
Silver 2006 Torino 20km Classic Visually Impaired
Silver 2002 Salt Lake City 20km Freestyle Visually Impaired
Biathlon
Bronze 2006 Torino 7.5km Visually Impaired Biathlon
Brian McKeever(right) and Robin McKeever after receiving their gold medals at the 2010 Paralympics

Brian McKeever (born June 18, 1979, in Calgary, Alberta) is a Canadian cross-country skier and biathlete.

Biography

He began skiing at the age of three and started competing at thirteen. At 19 he began losing his vision due to Stargardt's disease.[1] At the 2002 and 2006 Winter Paralympics he competed in both cross-country skiing and biathlon. He won two gold medals and a silver in cross-country the first year and bronze medal for biathlon plus two gold medals and a silver for cross-country skiing in the later year.[2][3]

His older brother, Robin McKeever, competed as his guide when Brian skis in the Paralympics, until 2014, when Erik Carleton took over.[4]

In 2010, he became the first Canadian athlete to be named to both Paralympic and Olympic teams.[5][6] At the 2010 Winter Olympics, he was going to compete in the men's 50km cross-country race, however Canada's coach decided to replace him with a skier who did well at an earlier event at the 2010 games and thus he did not become the first athlete in the world to compete in the Winter Paralympics and Winter Olympics in the same year.[7][8][9][10]

At the 2010 Paralympics McKeever won three gold medals for cross-country skiing.

He repeated this triple gold medal performance at the 2014 Sochi Winter Paralympics, sweeping the men's visually impaired cross country skiing individual events for the second time.[11]

References

  1. International Paralympic Committee
  2. brian mckeever's profile on paralympic.org
  3. http://www.paralympic.ca/en/athletes-detail.html?profileid=37981
  4. Brian McKeever video profile by Paralympic Sport TV
  5. Boston Herald, "Visually impaired skier Brian McKeever to make Olympic history", Associated Press, 23 January 2010
  6. Vancouver Sun, "Brian McKeever, first Winter Olympic/Paralympic athlete, sees his dream come true", Gary Kingston, 22 January 2010
  7. http://www.ctvolympics.ca/cross-country-skiing/news/newsid=53303.html?cid=rsstsn
  8. Vancouver Sun, "Legally blind skier embodies the Olympic ideal", Miro Cernetig, 17 February 2010 (accessed 21 February 2010)
  9. Associated Press, "Canada's McKeever to ski at Olympics, Paralympics", Rachel Cohen, 17 February 2010 (accessed 21 February 2010)
  10. Boston Herald, "Blind Olympian doesn’t believe in limits", Steve Kelley, 20 February 2010 (accessed 21 February 2010)
  11. Hicks, Brandon (March 16, 2014). "Brian McKeever makes history with more Paralympic gold". CBC Sports. Retrieved January 25, 2015.