Brian McKeever

I know there is a hockey game going on that has everybody a little pre-occupied, but this story makes me very sad, and a little mad.  Brian McKeever, the legally blind cross country skier who qualified for the Canadian cross country team by winning the 50km Canadian trials, and who I wrote about in an earlier blog posting, was denied the chance to make history by becoming the first athlete to compete in both the Winter Olympic and Paralympic games when he was not named as one of the four Canadian starters in the 50km event that finished this morning.

The coach's decision not to start McKeever was based on how well the other members of the team had performed in earlier events.  However, McKeever didn't have a chance to compete in earlier events, and so had no opportunity to show how well he was doing.

As it turns out, Devon Kershaw finished 5th, only 1.6 seconds off the gold medal time, and only 0.6 seconds from bronze.  Still, I think the coach's decision will be heavily scrutinized.  There are more important things than medals, and I believe McKeever had earned the opportunity to compete.