CANMORE – Waking up to his 20th birthday, Canmore’s most promising cross-country ski prospect Xavier McKeever was greeted with some chirping from teammates.
Going from teen to 20s came at a training camp this past August in Craftsbury, Vermont, where McKeever’s Olympian roomies Rémi Drolet and Graham Ritchie made sure to say happy birthday to their younger teammate and then let him have it with some friendly smack-talking. Specifically, they never thought the day would come when McKeever would take the jump out of the junior ranks and into the senior category.
A highly touted talent for years, McKeever’s been at the front of the pack in his age category among Canadians for, let’s say, a long time.
It’s no surprise that things feel a little weird now that the nephew of ski legend Brian McKeever has arrived on the big stage, for real.
“I’m an old guy now, is what I like to say to people,” said McKeever with a laugh. “Even though I’m a first year senior, I like to joke around about that kind of stuff.
“Twenty (years old), in a way, is the marker in skiing where you’re with the big boys now.”
Even though he’s not old enough to buy a beer in the United States, McKeever has been developing his skills in the national team system for years, and already has 10 world cup starts and one world championship event under his belt.
Last season, he along with relay teammates Ritchie, Antoine Cyr and Olivier Léveillé stunned the big ski nations when the relatively young Canuck squad finished fifth at world champs. It was a massively impressive accomplishment that has gotten Nordiq Canada rightfully excited about team events.
It’s one of the reasons McKeever credits to being named to Nordiq Canada’s senior national gold team for the first time, which the homegrown athlete will have his first world cup start at the start of the season this weekend (Nov. 24-26) in Ruka, Finland.
Starting compared to ending a world cup season, like McKeever did for the past two years, makes for a big difference in how fierce the competition will be, and the Canmore boy knows it.
“I get to see what the competition is like at the start of the year and try to learn things early on and take it down the road with me,” he said.
Though impressing with relay results, last season was “disappointing” for McKeever, who didn't meet certain goals, like medalling at world juniors. Held in British Columbia last January, McKeever had looked forward to junior worlds for a few years, only to strike out on major results. However, things changed a few weeks later.
“I think just like the lead up to that and the hopes I had for that [world juniors] event and it kind of being let down was one of the biggest scars in my season,” McKeever said.
“But in a way, I also discovered new opportunities through being able to compete at world champs. … Ultimately, it was that [world championship] relay performance that opened the door for me making it on to the gold team or senior national team this year.”
The son of ski Olympians Robin McKeever, who is head coach of the senior national team, and Milanie Theriault, McKeever said he has a high standard for himself.
In the off-season to prepare for the real jump to senior competition, McKeever diligently worked on improving his average speed over race distances, spent time with a mental performance coach, and mixed it all with a smarter recovery plan following training sessions.
Groomed to be one of Nordiq Canada’s top athletes since he was a child, the national organization thinks McKeever could be someone who sees success at a major event.
As high-performance director Chris Jeffries said, McKeever is not your typical first year senior.
“He’s definitely a podium potential athlete,” said Jeffries. “Probably not for 2026, but more so for 2030. But I think one thing we’ve learned over time, especially with this new cohort of athletes that we have coming up through the system, is to never say never. They kind of always surprise us. In particular, the relay is sort of what we as an organization are really keen on for success in 2026, especially on the men’s side.”
Jeffries added the new generation of men on skis is proving to have a better track record in team events than the previous generation of athletes like Alex Harvey, Devon Kershaw and Ivan Babikov.
When it comes to McKeever, the youngest of the senior men’s core, he’s much more mature for his age and is learning as he goes.
“Getting to race in period one of the world cups is a really exciting thing for me,” said McKeever. “It’s been a natural progression and I’m just soaking everything up.”
