Brian McKeever, 1st Disabled Athlete to Compete at Winter Ol

[KittyKins]

Brian McKeever will compete in the Cross-country skiing 50 km race on the last day of the Olympics. He becomes the first athlete to compete in both the Winter Paraolympics and Winter Olympics. He's an incredible athlete and it's amazing he can do so well when he is legally blind. The part about his Japanese descent is interesting too. Athough I guess he's not in the running for a medal, wouldn't it be something if he did?!

http://www.ctvolympics.ca/cross-country ... 43620.html


Brian McKeever - Good-looking fellow!

[KittyKins]

I'm just devastated for Brian, who I feel should have competed since he qualified. Skiing sure is a weird sport if they send these guys and then pull the rug out from under them at the last minute. The thing that's so wrong is it's only because the other 4 were doing well in earlier events in the Olympics, but the 30k not the 50k which is different endurance entirely. They shouldn't have duped him. I mean in skating they don't do that which seems more fair as they have respect for the amount of training involved. He shouldn't be penalized because he didn't have a chance to "show his stuff" earlier in the Olympics. He should have raced based on qualifying. Think of all the commercials and set-up. I sort of wonder if they intended to have him compete at all and perhaps used him for advertizement for their sport!

http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/vancou ... &type=lgns

It's put a real damper on the Olympics for me, that's for sure! And to think a Norweigan made the decision and not a Canadian...totally WEIRD!

[jamie1kanobi]

It does suck for him, and it would've been great to see him compete... Another historical moment at the Vancouver Olympics! But it's not like he didn't get a chance to show his stuff prior to the Games either, and his being legally blind didn't have anything to do with the decision; ultimately, the others proved themselves before and during the Olympics physically faster.

It sounds like it might've been just a really selfish publicity stunt, poor guy

[KittyKins]

The coach said it was based on performances AT the Olympics and also on the other skier's performances in the 30k in Vancouver. One of the skiers hadn't competed in the 50 km for about 3 years apparently and they were talking about how Brian did in a race 3 years ago, nothing current. He did compete in the Olympic trials which should have counted as he did quite well. There has GOT to be a better way to pick the best skiers. Personally I think it was very unfair and it's a particularly hard pill to swallow when a couple of those guys finished 30th place or worse. The snow was soft which is a very hard course best handled by a 50k specialist (like Brian I might add). One guy was 5th, but I'm sure they could have known he'd be the best. I guess we'll never know if Brian's vision impairment did enter into the decision. Discrimination has many faces, sorry to say. Just the other day a multi-cultural couple in Nova Scotia had someone burn a cross on their property like the KKK!! (that's prejudice as well but sometimes unexpected things happen). Working with people with disabilities I would never say that discrimination wasn't a factor. Sometimes it's an impression of what disabled people are capable or not capable of doing. Nothing is cut and dry with sensory impairments partly because their other senses are so well developed to compensate. Personally I think he should have gotten his chance and sadly he was the victim of an unfair advertizing campaign. When I heard about it I immediately knew he'd experience pain again about the loss of his vision, and sadly that was the case based on his comments.

He's got good support though: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/sports ... 73182.html

[jamie1kanobi]

Oh okay I didn't hear this at comment, obviously. My bad! Out of curiosity, how were the other skiers' times at these games compared to Brian's records? That's a hard way to compare though, since you have to consider the conditions of the race/course. It's weird that they based their choices on the 30K. They do need a better way to pick. But while it's still done through the 30K results, they have to choose the top 4; if they chose McKeever over the 4th fastest, it wouldn't be fair to that guy either.

He's an amazing athlete, he wins in the Paralympics by about 5 minutes... Too bad we never got to see him compete in the Olympics Everyone would've loved to see it happen, but I'm just saying... There's still some visible reason behind it all...

[friends_forever]

The best placed Canadian was 5th, 1.5 seconds out of gold. the rest finished out of top 10.

[Erica Armstrong]

It is too bad that Brian didn't get his chance, especially with two guys finishing in 32nd, 33rd. I know they can't tell in advance of the race just how well someone may or may not do.

It's a hard issue.

I suppose on one hand, Brian wouldn't want to be given a chance simply because of his disability. I'm sure he wants to be treated like any other athlete. Still, it would have been nice to give him the chance to make history - which brings attention to the sport and does good for the whole country really. But on the other hand - maybe the sport got just as much attention through the 'controversy'.

[KittyKins]

yeah, I think they milked that for all it was worth...hypocritical really as they used him when it suited them....ok that's the cynical view.

I'm very glad that Brian did SO well at the para-olympics, and the medals look exactly the same as the others and so he won a victory there.