Guides brave headwinds for more McKeever glory
Skier earns 10th career gold medal and plans to compete in 2018
KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia — The analogy wasn’t perfect given that cross- country skiing guides Erik Carleton and Graham Nishikawa are hardly plodders. They have, after all, skied on Canada’s national team.
But para- Nordic coach Robin McKeever came up with a unique way to describe the bluecollar work the two did against a strong head wind Sunday to help get Paralympics veteran Brian McKeever his third gold medal of the Sochi Games.
“Guiding in the wind is so difficult ... my hat’s off to both those guys,” said Robin, Brian’s older brother and former guide. “You’re just a frickin’ tow- truck and you’ve got to be a tow- truck towing a Ferrari.”
With the sun shining brightly at the windswept Laura CrossCountry Centre, the visually impaired Brian McKeever, 34, won the 10- kilometre race by just 8.1 seconds in factored time over Russian rival Stanislav Chokhlaev, who is totally blind.
It was the 10th career gold medal over four Games for Mc Keever, the personable Canmore, Alta., resident, who is easily Canada’s most decorated winter Paralympian. Last week, he won at 20K and also captured the 1K sprint.
McKeever’s win was just one highlight on a strong final weekend for Canada at the 2014 Games. Turns out they had a garage full of race cars just waiting for the final lap.
In the men’s 10K sit- ski race, 42- year- old Chris Klebl, who failed to medal while competing for the U. S. at the 2006 and 2010 Paralympics, stunned the Russian favourites, including Roman Petushkov, winning by 16.8 seconds.
After crossing the finish line, he sat with his head bowed in contemplative thought for a couple of minutes.
“In a long athletic career, there are usually not that many wins, so I think it’s just the continual belief that it’s possible,” said Klebl, a paraplegic who lives in Canmore. “I’ve been doing this for 10 years. It was the last opportunity for the next four years. I’m pretty excited.”
Petushkov had already won six gold medals in cross- country and biathlon in these Games. And the Russians had changed the race order for Sunday to make the men’s sit- ski the final event, clearly expecting another coronation for their King of Laura.
But an exhausted Petushkov could do no better than fourth.
Canada also got a first gold Saturday from promising 16- yearold Mac Marcoux of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., in the men’s visuallyimpaired giant slalom.
And it looked like they could have added one more in the Games final race, but sit- skier Kimberly Joines of Rossland, who had the lead after the first run of women’s giant slalom on Sunday, fell on her second run.
McKeever, who intends to compete through the 2018 Paralympics in Korea, said the margin of victory Sunday was his tightest outside of any sprint win.
“It was a tough one for sure. Woke up this morning and didn’t feel great, didn’t sleep for whatever reason. Maybe it’s just a long championships, starting to get tired. Or, I’m just getting old,” he said.
“It was all on the guides, they did such a great job with the headwind. I was just tucking in behind them and that’s a lot of energy being saved. There were a lot of places out on the course that were like that. If it’s just a few per cent here and there, it makes a big difference.”
Carleton, who has been fighting a bug for a week, went the first seven kilometres before Nishikawa took over. The two also shared guiding duties in the 20K.
Through a ticklish cough of his own, Nishikawa called Sunday’s race a “gutsy” performance by a clearly tiring McKeever: “( During the) morning, in the wax room, we were like, ‘ Uh, oh, this is going to be a close day.’ He’s raced so much this week and ( Sunday) showed what a strong competitor he is. He gutted it out.”
McKeever said getting to 10 career Paralympics gold medals at Sochi was special because he skied with two close friends in Carleton and Nishikawa. “It was such a team effort. We’re super tight,” McKeever said.