Brian McKeever (born June 18, 1979) is a Canadian

cross-country skier Cross-country skiing is a form of skiing where skiers rely on their own locomotion to move across snow-covered terrain, rather than using ski lifts or other forms of assistance. Cross-country skiing is widely practiced as a sport and recreation ...

and

biathlete The biathlon is a winter sport that combines cross-country skiing (sport), cross-country skiing and shooting sports, rifle shooting. It is treated as a race, with contestants skiing through a cross-country trail whose distance is divided into sh ...

, who became Canada's most decorated Winter Paralympian when he won his 14th medal at the

2018 Winter Paralympics ) , nations = 49 , athletes = 569 , events = 80 in 6 sports , opening = 9 March , closing = 18 March , opened_by = President Moon Jae-in , cauldron = Kim Eun-jung Seo Soon-seok , stadium = Pyeongchang Olympic ...

. He finished the 2018 Games with a career total of 13 gold medals and 17 medals in all, making him also the most decorated Paralympic cross-country skier ever.

Biography

McKeever began skiing at the age of three and started competing at thirteen. At 19 he began losing his vision due to

Stargardt's disease Stargardt disease is the most common inherited single-gene retinal disease. In terms of the first description of the disease, it follows an autosomal recessive inheritance pattern, which has been later linked to bi-allelic ABCA4 gene variants ...

. At the

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

and

2006 Winter Paralympics The 2006 Winter Paralympic Games ( it, Giochi paralimpici invernali del 2006), the ninth Paralympic Winter Games, took place in Turin, Italy from 10 to 19 March 2006. These were the first Winter Paralympic Games to be held in Italy. They were ...

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. For his performance at the 2006 Games McKeever was named Best Male at the Paralympic Sport Awards. McKeever's older brother,

Robin McKeever Robin McKeever (born April 8, 1973) is a Canadians, Canadian Paralympic cross-country skiing (sport), cross-country skier. Biography Born in Calgary, Alberta, McKeever participated in cross-country skiing at the 1998 Winter Olympic ...

, competed as his

guide A guide is a person who leads travelers, sportspeople, or tourists through unknown or unfamiliar locations. The term can also be applied to a person who leads others to more abstract goals such as knowledge or wisdom. Travel and recreation Expl ...

in the Paralympics until 2014, when Erik Carleton took over. In 2010, he became the first Canadian athlete to be named to both

Paralympic The Paralympic Games or Paralympics, also known as the ''Games of the Paralympiad'', is a periodic series of international multisport events involving athletes with a range of physical disabilities, including impaired muscle power and impaire ...

and

Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece b ...

teams. At the

2010 Winter Olympics )'' , nations = 82 , athletes = 2,626 , events = 86 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , opening = February 12, 2010 , closing = February 28, 2010 , opened_by = Governor General Michaëlle Jean , cauldron = Catriona Le May DoanNancy GreeneWayne Gretz ...

, 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 The Winter Paralympic Games is an international multi-sport event where athletes with physical disabilities compete in snow and ice sports. The event includes athletes with mobility impairments, amputations, blindness, and cerebral palsy. Th ...

and

Winter Olympics The Winter Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'hiver) is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were h ...

in the same year. At the 2010 Paralympics McKeever won three gold medals for cross-country skiing. McKeever repeated this triple gold medal performance at the

2014 Winter Paralympics The 2014 Winter Paralympics (russian: Зимние Паралимпийские игры 2014, Zimniye Paralimpiyskiye igry 2014), the 11th Paralympic Winter Games, and also more generally known as the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games, were an ...

in Sochi, sweeping the men's visually impaired cross country skiing individual events for the second time. At the

in Pyeongchang, McKeever was Canada's flagbearer during the opening ceremonies. His gold medal in the men's 20-kilometre cross-country ski freestyle event was the 14th of his career, to pass

Lana Spreeman Lana Spreeman (August 9, 1955 – November 29, 2016) was a Canadian athlete, who competed in alpine skiing at five Winter Paralympic Games. In her career, she won 13 medals for Canada, making her Canada's most decorated Winter Paralympian until ...

as Canada's most decorated Winter Paralympian. McKeever won another two individual gold and a team relay bronze, his third triple gold medal sweep, for a career total of 13 gold medals and 17 medals in all, making him also the most decorated Paralympic cross-country skier ever. Prior to the

2022 Winter Paralympics The 2022 Winter Paralympics (), commonly known as Beijing 2022 (), was an international winter multi-sport parasports event held in Beijing, China from 4 to 13 March 2022. This was the 13th Winter Paralympic Games, as administered by the Inte ...

in Beijing, McKeever announced that he would retire after the Games. He swept his three individual events for the fourth Paralympics in a row, including the men's visually impaired 20 kilometre classical, 1.5 kilometre sprint, and 12.5 kilometre freestyle—his 16th Paralympic medal and 20th overall.

Awards and honours

In 2011, McKeever was inducted alongside his brother Robin into the

Canadian Disability Hall of Fame The Canadian Disability Hall of Fame (formerly the Terry Fox Hall of Fame), recognizes "outstanding Canadians who have made extraordinary contributions to enriching the quality of life for people with physical disabilities". It is run by the Canadia ...

References

External links