CANMORE – Canada’s Para nordic ski team features an experienced crew of champions and medal contenders heading to the 2022 Beijing Paralympic Winter Games.
Announced Wednesday (Jan. 26), the Para nordic ski team includes Brian McKeever (with guides Russell Kennedy and Graham Nishikawa), Mark Arendz, Collin Cameron, Ethan Hess, Derek Zaplotinksy, Natalie Wilkie, Brittany Hudak, Christina Picton, Lyne-Marie Bilodeau and Emily Young.
In what will be his final Paralympics appearance, McKeever, who’s going to a sixth straight Games where he’s won 17 medals, said he’s leaving it all out on the course.
“I don’t want walk out of there and go I coulda or I shoulda done this and second guess some stuff,” said McKeever, 42. “I want to be able to say that’s the best I could have done today given the race, given the age, whatever. I can’t control the number next to my name at the end of the day, that’s why we do the races. If I get beat at that point then you turn around and shake the hands of people who beat me and that’s sport.”
The team will compete in both cross-country skiing and biathlon events.
At the 2018 PyeongChang Games, McKeever (with Kennedy and Nishikawa), Arendz, Hudak, Wilkie, Cameron and Young contributed to a record 16 medals.
The Paralympic Games take place March 4-13.
A schedule for the Para nordic ski events hasn’t been released.
