Two weeks after Olympic disappointment, Canada’s McKeever turning focus to 3rd Paralympics

Canada’s McKeever turning focus to 3rd Paralympics

WHISTLER, British Columbia — Brian McKeever is turning his focus to another Paralympic Games less than two weeks after having his Olympic dreams dashed.

It’s the only way for McKeever to move past the emotion — from sadness to anger that lingers still — after Canadian coaches made the decision not to let the legally blind cross country skier race in the 2010 Winter Games. It’s also the only way that he can move on to the Paralympic competitions that start on Saturday.

It has not, however, been an easy transition.

“It hurts as much as the day I was told I was going to lose my eyesight,” McKeever said Thursday on the eve of the opening ceremonies for the 2010 Paralympics. “It was huge, crushing, but again, I got over the eyes, I’ll get over this.”

McKeever, 30, started losing his central vision to Stargardt’s disease when he was 18. He still has his peripheral sight but everything in front of him is a “fuzzy white spot, said older brother Robin, who guided him to seven medals — four gold, two silver, and a bronze — over the last two Paralympic Games.

McKeever became the first Paralympic athlete to qualify for Canada’s able-bodied Olympic team in December. But after months of media build-up, he was left on the sidelines for the 50-kilometer race after Canada’s coaches decided to reward the team’s four other skiers for exceeding expectations earlier in the Olympics.

“Intense sadness to begin with,” McKeever said of being told he wouldn’t race. “And certainly there is a lot of anger there still, but it will fade.”

Seeing his teammates do so well in that final race helped the healing process.

Devon Kershaw finished fifth, just 1.6 seconds behind the gold medal pace, George Grey was 18th, Alex Harvey was 22nd, and Ivan Babikov came in 33rd. But instead of praise for Canada’s best Olympic showing in men’s cross country, the four received hate mail for not stepping aside to let McKeever race.

“I’m actually very sad the athletes were getting hate mail, that’s really unfair,” McKeever said. “They were put into a tough place themselves and I think they handled it very well. They went out feeling sad as well that I wouldn’t get to race because we are all friends, we train together.”

McKeever said seeing his teammates set personal bests “was pretty inspiring, and will help him battle through a flu bug to compete at these Paralympics.

He plans on competing in all five races — three in cross country and two in biathlon, which mixes skiing and target shooting. He ll begin with biathlon Saturday, but admits the rifle is not his strength, in part because he spent so much of the last four years focused on improving his skiing for the Olympics.

“Blind biathlon is a bit of an oxymoron, isn’t it,” said McKeever, who relies on an infrared beam to produce a sound that gets faster and higher pitched the closer he aims to center. “The first time I heard about it I laughed.”

McKeever was still smiling but serious about his future beyond the Paralympics, and sounded intent on qualifying for the 2014 Olympics in Socchi, Russia.

“Never been to Russia, would like to see it, he said with a laugh.”

“The eyesight is not coming back,” added Robin, his older brother by six years and a Para-Nordic coach. “But there’s always another Olympic Games four years down the road, so that’s where the focus has to change and (being left out this year) gives you extra motivation to train for the next four years.”

So too does the chance to inspire others and highlight the Paralympics, which run from March 12 to 21 and attract more than 1,300 athletes from 40 countries, including 50 from the United States. They will compete in alpine skiing, cross country and biathlon at the same Whistler venues that hosted the Olympics, while wheelchair curling and sledge hockey take place in Vancouver.

“If we can bridge that gap between the Olympics and Paralympics and everybody follows us along for the ride, we’ll get more support,” McKeever said. “It was also good press just to qualify for the Olympics. That was the positive story. The fact there was an unfortunate part at the end, whatever, we can get by that. I sincerely do hope, the big hope here, is that people will continue to follow it, not just for our story but for the sake of the Paralympic Games.”