Blind Ambition

To those have been wondering where I've been, don't worry, rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated, to those who were glad when they thought I had finally stopped blogging, sticks and stones will break my bones, but I told my dad and he's an ex-marine, he'll give ya a war like you wouldn't believe. Oh come on, admit it, you have all missed my run-on sentences and terrible grammar, you can't lie to me. I have spent the past week visiting my dad, it was a fun time, and was also an enlightening trip as today I discovered that for the first time ever the Canadian Olympic team will feature a para-Olympian. Brian McKeever will be the first blind cross country skier to ever make the team, and in all seriousness I can say I never saw this one coming.

When asked how he got interested in cross-country skiing McKeever said it all started when he was younger. As it turns out some particularly nasty bullies strapped him to a pair to skies and pushed him down the hill. His unwillingness to go down and the fact that he had a better time then most Canadian skiers led him to believe that this was something he could do. Let's face it you don't always need to see where your going to know which path you should go down, plus imagine the bragging this man can do. I'm terrified to close my eyes going down a hill on a taboggon and here is this man skiing through blindly making his way through the woods.

McKeever making the team is not the only first for the cross country team, as because of the special circumstances the ski team coach has brought in the first ever skiing eye dog. When asked to comment on the dog, the coach said that While McKeever was an accomplished skier he was worried about his finishing time. It turns out McKeever started strong but would often lag in the end, getting misguided, one time in training he actually ended up in Saskatoon. By the time the coaches and other skiers found him he had become the leader of the Saskatoon Naval Reserve. The coach figured by bringing in the skiing eye dog it would keep McKeever on course, and also added "have you ever seen a dog on skis, it's adorable."

McKeever joining the ski team has inspired and fired up the other cross country skiers. Competition has intensified amongst the team as nobody wants to finish behind "the blind guy". Things became heated in a recent training run as McKeever was shot at by a teammate who was lagging behind him. When asked for comment the skier said he was merely practicing for the Bi-athalon. When asked about the silencer and laser sight, the skier replied by yelling "look over there" and skied away hurriedly. Unfortunately, the reporters were Norwegian and able to catch him rather easily. I tell ya between blind skiers and bi-athletes the Canadian Olympic team is a real hodge podge of personalities.

I may joke, but I don't want to take away from McKeever's accomplishment, because it's most impressive. Mckeever and I have one thing in common, neither one of us has ever seen a pair of skis, yet this man can work his away through the woods, while I'm pretty sure I would go the Sonny Bono route, yes even if I was going in a straight line at a speed of 5 km/h, I know I wouldn't be able to stop. Although in reality Sonny Bono used to hit Cher so after that hitting a tree should be less painful I would think. Finally I just wanna say that I think that Brian McKeever embodies perfectly the Canadian cross-country ski team, hard working, determined and totally not going to see the podium come Olympic time.