[Nfbmo] Fw: [whoweare] blind Olympic skier will not compete forCanada

Sun Feb 28 23:41:09 UTC 2010

hi,

what's not to get about higher, faster, stronger?
Bryan Schulz

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "fred olver" <goodfolks at charter.net>
To: <nfbmi-talk at nfbnet.org>; "NFB of Missouri Mailing List" 
<nfbmo at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Sunday, February 28, 2010 4:48 PM
Subject: [Nfbmo] Fw: [whoweare] blind Olympic skier will not compete 
forCanada

>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: Happy Ruth
> To: fred olver
> Sent: Sunday, February 28, 2010 4:31 PM
> Subject: Fw: [whoweare] blind Olympic skier will not compete for Canada
>
>
>
> call my chatline 724 444 3592
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: Joy Coffman
> To: \'whoweare at yahoogroups.com\' ; happyruth at earthlink.net
> Sent: Sunday, February 28, 2010 9:37 AM
> Subject: [whoweare] blind Olympic skier will not compete for Canada
>
>
>
>
> WHISTLER, British Columbia – Canada should have given the podium away. 
> Just this once, it should have let Brian McKeever race.
>
>
> It should have done so because the Vancouver Games aren’t all about 
> medals, times and endorsements. It should have done so because, while 
> legally blind, McKeever sees his Olympic dream with his heart – and that’s 
> what this should all be about. It should have done so because that 
> rallying cry of “Own the Podium” isn’t the definition of Canadians in 
> these Games.
>
>
>
>
> Brian McKeever competes in the 50K cross-country race at the 2007 FIS 
> Nordic World Ski Championships.
> (Gepa/US Presswire)
>
> Most of all, Canada should have let Brian McKeever race because it brought 
> him to Vancouver in the first place. It gave him the gift of chasing his 
> dream, and something like that should never be taken back.
>
>
> Make no mistake, this was an uncommon, crucial decision. It was the 
> difference between chasing national glory and embracing an athlete who 
> doesn’t need a medal to deliver it. McKeever could have been that athlete. 
> If only his country would have let it happen.
>
>
> McKeever, a Canadian cross-country skier who has been robbed of all but 10 
> percent of his vision, was slated to race in the 50-kilometer marathon on 
> Sunday, one of the final events before the Closing Ceremony. It would have 
> made him the first Winter Games athlete to compete in both the Olympic and 
> Paralympic Games. But he was bumped from the team Friday night, as Canada’s 
> cross-country program chose to fill its maximum four entries with skiers 
> who had fared well in earlier events.
>
>
> Early Saturday morning, McKeever posted a solitary message on his Twitter 
> account: “Olympic dream over. Don’t think I’ve ever been so sad.”
>
>
> You have to think the rest of Canada has to be a little sad, too. The 
> cross-country program just canceled one of the most moving storylines of 
> these Games.
>
>
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>
> Welcome to classic, clinical Olympic decision-making.
>
> Canada’s cross-country program has never been an international power, and 
> never won an Olympic medal. But new coach Inge Braten was brought aboard 
> to change that trend. So when the Canadian men notched six top-10 
> cross-country finishes in these Games – three of them in the 30K event – 
> it became clear Canada had a chance to medal in the 50K. A chance that is 
> most reachable if the Canadians field their best possible foursome.
>
>
> That reality has left McKeever on the outside, as Braten chose four strong 
> skiers who all had better odds at medaling than McKeever.
>
>
> “I have to be professional,” Braten told reporters. “I have to choose the 
> guys who are best for the 50K. Normally, sorry to say, all four are faster 
> than Brian. And I think they can fight for a medal – all four of them. And 
> I then have to pick out one who has a medal chance and put in Brian?
>
>
> “That’s the situation. I don’t like it.”
>
>
> To be fair, it’s not an enviable position. Taking out a medal hopeful and 
> replacing him with a lesser competitor almost runs contrary to the Olympic 
> ideal. And in any other situation, it’s a cold and understandable choice 
> that gets made without much fanfare. Look no further than Alpine skiing, 
> where many athletes travel to the Games but never get into an event, 
> simply because they are trumped by someone who is a better medal 
> contender.
>
>
> But this isn’t a normal circumstance, and McKeever is anything but an 
> average story. He carries with him one of the special tales in these 
> Games. A beam of light that keeps the Games joyful and embraceable, 
> shining through the unavoidable pettiness intertwined with the Olympic 
> rings. He gives us a distraction from the feuding teammates and 
> questionable judging and commercialization. He lifts us and leaves us with 
> an indelible memory … the kind of memory that draws us back again four 
> years later.
>
>
> McKeever is the product of a skiing family; his older brother Robin 
> competed in the 1998 Olympics in Nagano, Japan. Brian loved the idea of 
> following in those footsteps. A talent on the junior skiing circuit at the 
> time, he watched his brother like he was watching his own dream. He 
> thought it was beautiful.
>
>
> One month after those Nagano Games, McKeever was diagnosed with Stargardt 
> disease. He knew exactly what it was – a genetic macular degeneration that 
> leads to blindness. His father had the disease but had hoped it would skip 
> over his two sons. Robin was fortunate. Brian wasn’t. Two years after his 
> diagnosis, McKeever was declared legally blind at the age of 21.
>
>
> Yet he never surrendered his dream of skiing. Despite his eyesight 
> decaying to the point where he had less than 10 percent of his normal 
> vision, he would step out on the snow, snap on his boots, and do his best 
> to stay on the white between the green. The little vision that remained 
> was peripheral, meaning he could see the edges of his vision, but not the 
> middle. He often compares it to the hole in a doughnut – relating that he 
> can see the outer edges of the doughnut, but not the middle.
>
>
> McKeever took that doughnut and did amazing things with it, skiing in the 
> 2002 Paralympic Games in Salt Lake City and 2006 in Torino, capturing four 
> golds, two silvers and one bronze in various cross-country races over that 
> span. All the while, his brother Robin led the way, doing his part as 
> McKeever’s course guide. But it wasn’t until December, when McKeever won a 
> 50K Olympic trial race in convincing fashion – and without a guide – that 
> his dream became a reality.
>
>
>
> Brian McKeever, left, and his guide/brother Robin celebrate after they won 
> gold in the Men’s 10 km visually impaired cross country competition at the 
> Turin 2006 Paralympic Winter Games.
> (Giovanni Auletta/AP)
>
> One month later, he was named to the Canadian Olympic cross-country team, 
> in a fashion that drew national attention. Indeed, it appeared to be the 
> full embrace. McKeever was trumpeted as the first Winter Games athlete who 
> would compete in both the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
>
>
> And he was held up to all Canadians as a testament to the human spirit. 
> His status as an active Olympian seemed set in stone – so much so, that 
> Visa even began airing his own commercial in February, featuring a 
> voiceover from actor Morgan Freeman.
>
>
> “I’m sometimes struck just by the beauty of what we get to do, and the 
> places we get to see,” McKeever said of the experience. “I’m thankful that 
> I still can see what I do. We do live in a beautiful world. Sometimes we 
> get jaded by the country that we live in – because we see it all the 
>  time.”
>
>
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>
> Things changed for McKeever in recent days, of course. Braten and the 
> Canadian cross-country program began to talk of opportunity. Not the 
> opportunity of McKeever, but the opportunity of capturing the program’s 
> first medal. Winning a medal in the prestigious 50K would be a major step 
> forward – an attention-grabber that shows the success in Vancouver has 
> been more than a fluke. Risking that on McKeever, well, must have simply 
> been too precarious.
>
>
> Particularly when your country sunk $117 million into its “Own the Podium” 
> initiative, which was aimed at Canada winning the medal count on its home 
> turf. The results have been solid – third place in the overall medal count 
> and first position in golds – but the message has not. Some Canadians 
> recoiled at such a jingoistic slogan. Others in the media focused a 
> critical spotlight on the Canadians’ deficit behind the United States and 
> Germany.
>
>
> Somewhere in the middle of the race for supremacy, the tangible results of 
> competition became more important than the athletes themselves. And a guy 
> like McKeever got marginalized. Sure, sitting down another athlete in the 
> 50K would have been difficult. But would it have been any more difficult 
> than what the Canadians did to McKeever? Is it a coincidence that when 
> they chose to cancel someone’s dream, the cross-country team went for the 
> guy who was most likely to inspire, but least likely to medal?
>
>
> The truth is, Canada should have found a way to let McKeever compete on 
> Sunday. It should have sat another athlete, or asked if someone was 
> willing to step aside.
>
>
> Instead, it made the obvious corporate decision. It went with numbers over 
> nerve.
>
>
> Perhaps Canada will add another medal to the count in the 50K. Maybe it 
> will sweep the podium. But 10 years from now, when nobody can even 
> remember the medal count, this moment will be remembered as a mistake.
>
>
> Because in most cases, it’s better to give away a podium, and own hearts 
> and minds instead.
>
>
>
>
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