WHISTLER — The 2008 Olympics in Beijing had Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps. The 2010 Olympics had Lindsey Vonn, Charles Hamelin and a rather remarkable goal by Sidney Crosby.
The 2010 Paralympics has the Brian McKeever Show.
McKeever, the 30-year-old legally blind Paralympic cross country skier/biathlete from Canmore, Alta., won gold here Monday morning at Whistler Olympic Park in the men’s 20-km freestyle visually impaired cross country race, in a time of 51 minutes, 14.79 seconds, with his guide and older brother, Robin.
They finished 40.09 seconds ahead of Russia’s Nikolai Polukhin and his guide Andrey Tokarev. Bronze went to Belarus’s Visili Shaptsiavoi and guide Mikalai Shablouski, who were 1:07.80 behind.
McKeever is a hot commodity here.
A throng of reporters showed up for his press conference last week. And though there was a sparse gathering on hand Saturday when he and his brother Robin, who serves as his guide, skied and shot to a sixth place finish in the 2.4 km event, there was another large gathering to watch his first bid for cross country skiing gold.
In case you haven’t heard McKeever made history, earning a spot on the Canadian Olympic cross country team.
He had hoped to ski in the 50 km event, but was devastated when the Canadian coaching staff decided to use four other skiers instead.　
McKeever has Stargaard’s disease, a degenerative conditions that reduces his vision. He also has a history of dominance on the cross country trials, owning seven medals from two previous Paralympic Games — four gold, two silver and a bronze.
He has a couple more medal shots here.
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Paralympic cross-country skiing was included as an event at the first Paralympic Winter Games in 1976, at Örnsköldsvik, with classical technique events only. Free technique was introduced in 1992 at Albertville.
In both biathlon and cross-country skiing, athletes are categorized as standing, sitting or visually impaired and compete against athletes with similar disabilities. Visually impaired skiers use the same equipment as able-bodied skiers but ski with a guide. Standing skiers are skiers with a locomotive disability and who are able to use the same equipment as able-bodied skiers. Sit-skiers usually have no use of their legs (paraplegic) and use a special made sit-ski (a specially built chair, called a sledge, attached to a pair of skis).
Paralympic cross-country skiers compete in men’s and women’s individual events over short, middle and long distances ranging from 2.5 kilometres to 20 kilometres. Each race has an interval start with skiers starting every 30 seconds.
In the relay event, each team member skis one leg. Teams are made up of skiers from different categories but with the total percentage for each team being equal. This means that no time calculation is required and the first team across the finish line wins.
(Vanoc website)
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