Blowing & Drifting

The Canadian cross-country skiing team had high expectations for the recent World Championships at Sapporo. Though those expectations weren't quite met, the team does still have three years (and another worlds) to prepare for their home-snow races at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. Hoping to make the Olympic team then is the Canadian skier who had the best placings at Sapporo, Brian McKeever, the subject of an inspiring short profile in the Times. McKeever's speed and endurance are all the more remarkable for the fact that he is legally blind, owing to a condition called Stargardt disease, which causes the irreversible degeneration of one's central vision. An accomplished skier before the onset of his blindness at age 19, McKeever sometimes now skis with a guide (his brother), but at the Worlds, he had to ski alone, unguided, on some of the most treacherous trails in the world. In doing well, he stayed on track for the 2010 Olympics. Amazing stuff.