Canadian skier targets both Olympics and Paralympics

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CANADIAN PARALYMPIC COMMITTEE (CPC) ************************* McKeever aims to compete at both 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games

OTTAWA - Paralympic gold medalist Brian McKeever took a step closer to his dream of competing at both the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games by qualifying this week for the Canadian senior team heading to Sapporo, Japan for the FIS world cross-country ski championships.

McKeever, who has only eight to 10 percent of normal vision, was named to the team this week after posting the second-best points total in distance races last week in Canmore, Alberta. "The competition will be tough in Japan, but it was tough at the Paralympic Games too, so my experience will help me," said McKeever.

"I've always had Olympic aspirations, and I'm really happy with my new training program which has given me a new outlook and new confidence," McKeever said. "I am doing a lot more volume training, building up to 750 training hours a year or an optimum of 800 hours," he said.

"Before, I was only able to get in 650 hours with a training program I had designed myself."

His new program was designed by Dr. Dave Smith, of the Canadian Sport Centre Calgary with funding assistance from Own the Podium, a national initiative aimed at making Canada number one at the 2010 Olympic Games and in the top-three at the 2010 Paralympic Games.

McKeever said making the 2010 Olympic team is a realistic goal.

"At the highest level of competition, everything counts," McKeever said.

"If your wax is a bit off, you're not in the race."

"My eyesight is something I deal with and I just want to ski as well as I can," he said.

National ParaNordic Ski team manager Bjorn Taylor adds, "Brian is an elite-level athlete."

"He has set high goals, and it can only improve him for the Paralympic side," Taylor said.

McKeever won four medals, including two gold, at the 2006 Paralympic Games in Turin, Italy.

He has Stargaard's disease, a form of macular degeneration. The FIS world cross-country championship in Sapporo runs February 22 to March 4.

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