Canada strides to its goal
Skiers McKeever, Wilkie win to bring nation to all-time best 24 medals
PYEONGCHANG, SOUTH KOREA— Hours before Brian McKeever completed his Pyeongchang hat trick, the veteran crosscountry skier arrived at the Alpensia track before the sun was barely up.
He and his guides Russell Kennedy and Graham Nishikawa were the first skiers to arrive Saturday morning, and spent the better part of two hours testing different skis in the fastchanging weather conditions.
McKeever raced to his third gold medal at the Pyeongchang Paralympics in the visually impaired 10 kilometres on Satur- day, for an incredible 13th gold of his career. Afterward, the 38year-old from Canmore, Alta., gave credit to all the painstaking pre-race preparation by his team.
“We had about a dozen skis to get through because the temperature went from plus-20 the other day to minus-14 this morning. So that’s a massive swing,” McKeever said. “We hadn’t seen anything that cold, we hadn’t seen the snow do what it did today, and with it warming over the day we knew we were going to have to be on the ball.
“So it was all new skis, testing new structures, new everything.”
Natalie Wilkie, the youngest member of Canada’s Paralympic team at 17, raced to a thrilling gold in the standing wom- en’s 7.5 kilometres while Emily Young of North Vancouver, B.C., claimed bronze.
Mark Arendz of Hartsville, P.E.I., added two more medals and was selected to lead Canada’s most successful winter Paralympic team ever into the stadium when the Games’ curtain comes down..
The 28-year-old biathlete and cross-country skier reached the podium in every one of his races, capturing gold in the 15-kilometre biathlon, silver in the 7.5K biathlon, and three bronze medals in the 12.5K biathlon, 1.5K cross-country sprint, and 10K cross-country race.
Canada had 24 medals with one day remaining, topping the previous best of 19 won in Vancouver in 2010. It is guaranteed at least one more medal, since the hockey team is due to battle the rival Americans for gold. McKeever isn’t certain if he has one more Paralympics in him.
Wilkie, who lost the four fingers on her left hand in a jointer machine in Grade 9 wood work class, won in 22:12.2, edging Ekaterina Rumyantseva, a neutral Paralympian from Russia (22:13.8). Young crossed in 22:13.9.
“Awesome. I didn’t think I’d get gold at all,” said Wilkie, who won bronze earlier in the Games. “This is only my first Paralympics. It feels awesome, especially being able to share the podium with my teammate Emily.
“I was imagining when I was pushing down with my pole that I was elbowing my brother,” Wilkie added. “That really helped me.”