McKeever skis to record 14th medal at Paralympics

PYEONGCHANG, SOUTH KOREA • Medal No. 14 was both historic and incredibly hard.

When Brian McKeever looks back at the race that made him Canada’s most decorated winter Paralympian, he’ll remember it as one of his most difficult.

The visually i mpaired cross- country skier opened the Pyeongchang Paralympics with a gold medal in the 20- kilometre event Monday, his 11 th Paralympic gold medal and 14th overall.

In the moments after, the 38- year- old from Canmore, Alta., talked about the lungbusting final few kilometres.

“This one was hard. This one was really hard,” McKeever said. “I think we had a plan to ski comfortably into it and try and build towards the end, and I think I built too much in the middle.

“I almost undid it because the last lap was very hard to keep the pace, but good enough in the middle that we built a nice lead and then we were able to hang on. But it was touch and go there at the end.”

McKeever passed Lana Spreeman, an alpine skier who won 13 Paralympic medals between 1980 and 1994.

McKeever, who carried Canada’s flag into Friday’s opening ceremonies, crossed in a time of 46 minutes 2.4 seconds, accompanied by guides Graham Nishikawa and Russell Kennedy. The duo t ook t urns guiding McKeever after each loop, a two- guide tactic the Canadian first implemented four years ago in Sochi.

“They did an awesome job today,” McKeever said.

The skier could add to his medal total in Pyeongchang, as the 20K was just his first of three events.