HOW FIXING A TV IN ’88 HELPED CANADA WIN 13 GOLD MEDALS
When Brian McKeever’s parents got the family television fixed back in 1988, his little-kid antenna went up and he knew something really important was going on.
The then eight-year-old bornand-raised Calgarian was allowed to watch as much television as he wanted, as long as it was Calgary’s 1988 Winter Olympics.
“I’m a product of the ’88 games,” said McKeever, Canada’s most decorated Winter Paralympian of all-time, with 17 Paralympic medals, 13 of which are gold.
“We grew up without a TV,” said McKeever during a Postmedia editorial board meeting with Calgary 2026, the group tasked with bringing the Olympics back to Calgary.
“We had (a TV) but it was broken and my parents got it fixed so that we could watch the Games, and that’s something that really hits home to a young child,” said McKeever, who lost his sight as a result of Stargardt disease, starting when he was 18.
“I thought, it must be important if my parents are doing this, and they allowed us to watch every event,” he said with a laugh, “as opposed to sending us outside to play.”
McKeever, who made history in 2010 when he was named to both the Canadian Olympic and Paralympic teams, has maintained his dominance as the world’s top visually impaired cross-country skier in 2017-18.
“It became something that we studied all through the curriculum in school,” said McKeever, who back then was in Grade 3 at Varsity Acres Elementary school in northwest Calgary, where his father taught physical education.
“Obviously, the phys ed side was there, but also things like social studies, where you’re learning about things like cultures and the politics of other nations and writing English essays on it, and it became this really big deal. And I remember the excitement that was going through the city,” he said of those Winter Olympics 30 years ago now.
Brian’s brother, Robin, who is six years older (and was Brian’s ski guide at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics where he won three gold medals), was one of the kids who would ski a lap of the cross-country ski course before the race would start to make sure there were no obstacles for the athletes.
“I remember all the other kids in the club being so jealous of (Robin’s) ugly lime green suit that he wore.” All of these things combined to help McKeever recognize how significant the Olympics are.
After the Games ended, his family used virtually all of the facilities built, including the Oval for family skates, training at Canada Olympic Park (WinSport) and, of course, the Canmore Nordic Centre, where McKeever, 38, trains now.
Back in 2005, McKeever admits that he questioned the decision made to upgrade the Canmore Nordic Centre to international standards, by bringing in more lit loops and better snow-making capabilities.
A World Cup cross-country event was held there, which brought out numerous spectators ... “and the next thing you knew, if you go up there on a kids’ night on a Tuesday, there are about 400 kids making a nuisance of themselves and it’s wonderful. And on weekends, you can’t park in the parking lot. Everybody is out there and that happened with the refreshing of that facility,” said McKeever. “All of a sudden, more people are active, more people are using it.
“With these legacies, it’s not just about what happens at these Games, or five years after. It’s 30 years that we’ve had since ’88 and we continue to use a lot of the facilities. Seeing that refresh in Canmore is really cool, to see the explosion we had in the popularity of the sport since, and I hope with that, future generations will have more opportunities than I’ve had, not just to train and compete, but just to be active and outdoors.”
This is the softer side of a winning Olympic bid. Not the tangible stuff, but the intangibles of healthier, happier citizens. How do you put a figure on that? Nevertheless, the hard numbers paint a pretty compelling picture, as well.
As Calgary 2026 CEO Mary Moran pointed out, $4.4 billion of committed funding will flow into Calgary as a result of an Olympic bid that otherwise won’t be spent here — including $1.5 billion from the federal government that hardly ever gives Alberta any of its tax dollars back, to build infrastructure this city desperately needs. If Calgary doesn’t host the Games, that Sport Canada funding will go somewhere else.
Jobs, needed infrastructure and an international spotlight on Calgary as a great place to invest, live and set up shop are just some of the tangible benefits that will flow as a result of hosting the Games, something that’s been seen in Vancouver after hosting the 2010 Winter Olympics.
Here’s hoping that, come the Nov. 13 plebiscite, Calgarians will be aware of the many benefits of hosting an Olympics — not just because of the hard numbers — but the softer, less tangible benefits of healthier, more active kids embodied in an eight-yearold McKeever, and tens of thousands of others who have never won any medals, but love to be active and healthy.