Brian McKeever adds another Paralympic gold medal to legendary cross-country career

Brian McKeever is still making it look easy.

The 42-year-old Canadian won gold in the men's visually impaired 20-kilometre cross-country event on Monday at the Beijing Paralympics, blowing away the rest of the field.

It's McKeever's 14th career Paralympic title, and his 18th total medal across six Games dating back to Salt Lake City in 2002.

Led by guide Russell Kennedy, the Canmore, Alta., native crossed the finish line in 55 minutes 36.7 seconds for his latest gold medal, just over three minutes ahead of silver medallist Jake Adicoff of the U.S. Sweden's Zebastian Modin rounded out the podium with bronze at 1:00:05.4

"It's always exciting. It's never easy and today, having Russell around, it was a great pace he set, very good guiding," McKeever said. "He's one of the fastest skiers in the world and to have him skiing in front of me, he is a great person to be following."

WATCH | McKeever cruises to gold medal:

McKeever said ahead of Beijing that these would be his final Games, ending a legendary career in which he's rarely stood below the top spot of the podium.

In fact, he's now won 14 of his 16 total individual Paralympic races. The last time McKeever failed to top the podium in the 20km cross-country event was in 2006 when he won silver.

"If it wasn't for good [physical] therapists, I wouldn't be standing here, so I think it is time," he said. "The body is slowing down. Call it a soft retiring, I want to fade away slowly. We are still competitive, but I'm breaking down. You wake up in pain, you go to bed in pain, so it's certainly time. 

He quickly put to rest any questions that might have lingered about his fitness after the Canadian team skipped the 2022 world championships in Lillehammer.

McKeever hadn't competed at a major international event since 2019, when he won gold in the long-distance event. Still, it was reasonable to wonder if the 42-year-old remained as dominant as ever.

He answered in emphatic fashion on Monday.

McKeever is a B3 athlete, the least severe classification in the visually impaired category.

"If you stare at the sun for a long time and turn away, you get these fuzzy spots. Well for me, the fuzzy spots don't go away," he once said of his sight.

McKeever will be back in action in the sprint event on Wednesday.

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