Look Past the Barriers
Brian McKeever pushed himself through the last lap of his 20-kilometre cross-country ski race.
The wind blew hard that day.
He’d pushed himself a bit too much in the middle of the race, so he struggled to keep the pace toward the end.
“The last lap was very hard. I was hurting at the end,” Brian said.
And then he heard someone yell from the sidelines, “Brian, you’re a minute ahead.”
He was indeed.
He pressed forward, focusing on his technique, the nuances of the course… and the vocal commands from his guide, Graham Nishikawa.
You see, Brian is legally blind. McKeever has Stargardt’s disease, which took his central vision when he was 19. He only has 8% normal vision, but he has perfect peripheral vision.
He describes it like this: it’s like holding your fist in front of your eyes only a centimetre away.
Try it.
And then imagine racing that way in a 20-kilometre cross-country ski competition.
And then imagine it’s the Paralympic Games.
I met Brian McKeever and Graham Nishikawa after they took the gold in the Men’s 20-km Cross-Country — Visually Impaired event. I was assigned to be their escort to the Medals Ceremony.
With this medal, Brian was now Canada’s most decorated Winter Paralympian. 14 medals under his belt — 11 gold, two silver, and one bronze.
I was meeting a living legend.
I explained my role and we discussed where he needed to go and what he needed to do. I took off my sunglasses and then said, I want you to see my face so you know who to look for.
We laughed as he said, “So I’m looking for Big Red.”
I wondered what a living legend would talk about in the car ride back to the Paralympic Village.
They talked about eating, about the other sports, about the competition venues in Pyeongchang, about upcoming races. He joked about a blunder a teammate had made accidentally dropping an f-bomb in a press interview.
Turns out living legends are just normal guys too.
It’s Not About Impairment
Brian doesn’t just have a “can-do attitude.”
He has a “can-do-anything-I-throw-myself-at attitude.”
He doesn’t let his own thoughts or feelings or impairments or insecurities get in his way.
Brian McKeever says,
“So what? In the end I can’t drive. If that’s the worst of it, no big deal. There’s 30 million people in Tokyo, how many of them are driving? They’re all taking the subway to get to work.
“Everybody has something that makes us insecure, and shapes our perspective of the world that we live in. We can see it as a physical disability, we can see it as an emotional disability, and we can see it as psychological. All that stuff is there. Or we can choose to not see it at all.”
Brian practices what he preaches.
He pushes himself in training.
He pushes himself in competition.
His guides know just how much he pushes himself because they feel it too. In fact, he uses two guides — Graham Nishikawa and Russell Kennedy — so the guides can keep up with his pace.
Nishikawa says,
“My job is basically to go as hard as I can… We’re finding ways to keep the pace super high for Brian, because Brian is crazy fit and it’s really hard for guides to stay in front of him.”
The guides push McKeever too. After this race, he said,
“But it was hard staying with these boys … Both Russ and Graham did such a good job today that I was hurting by the end, so it was thanks to them that we got this done.”
I see that attitude with every Paralympian at these Games. On every race course. I marvelled at visually impaired athletes, athletes with missing limbs, and sitting athletes hurtling down a super giant slalom course. Just to give you some perspective, the sitting athletes fly down the slopes at 80 mph.
It’s not about impairment.
It’s about training, skill, fitness, power, endurance, technique, pace, focus.
We all face barriers.
Will we focus on the barrier?
Or will we look past the barrier and focus on the goal — and what it will take to achieve that goal?
Look for Me at the Winter Paralympic Games
I’ve been assigned to the Paralympic Medals Plaza to work as an escort for medalists to their Medal Ceremony.
My daughter told me I’m hip. That made my day.
I’m pretty sure that the cameras won’t ever be pointed at me… but you never know. So keep an eye out for me.
And I’ll be writing about my experiences at the Paralympics on The Mission. If you want to follow my adventure, then just follow me.
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