by Jaime Rodriguez, RDPFS Intern
The 2022 Paralympic Winter Games in Beijing are swiftly approaching. With the games starting on March 4, 2022, we are continuing to highlight some of the athletes with vision loss who are competing. Brian McKeever, a 42-year-old athlete from Team Canada, is among the top cross-country skiers in the world who are visually impaired and is the most decorated male Paralympian in the history of Para Cross-Country. Having lost his vision to Stargardt macular degeneration when he was 19-years-old, McKeever has never allowed it to slow him down. Starting to ski at age three, he began competing at age 13, going on to win a total of 17 Paralympic medals, 13 of them gold, across two sports, cross-country skiing and biathlon. Brian McKeever continues to hit the slopes, with his brother Robin as his guide. The brothers have competed in multiple Paralympic Winter Games, earning them the honor of being inducted into the Canadian Disability Hall of Fame. McKeever, who was recently featured in a Super Bowl commercial for Toyota, says that he was excited and humbled by the opportunity to see the story of his life and journey on screen. He hopes that his story, and others like his, inspires viewers to pursue their “impossible.” McKeever will compete in Para Nordic skiing this year, hoping to earn more medals in what he said may be his last Paralympic competition. To find out more about Brian McKeever’s journey to the 2022 Winter Games, Watch the Toyota advertisement “2022 Toyota Big Game Commercial: Brothers Extended Cut | Start Your Impossible”, here on YouTube. You may also read the ABC News article “Toyota’s new Super Bowl ad about Paralympic brothers is as inspiring as it gets,” here.
