Canada’s Brian McKeever raced into the history books and grabbed his 16th Paralympic gold medal in cross-country skiing at the Beijing Winter Games Saturday. McKeever won the middle distance race, and in doing so equalled the gold-medal haul of German former para alpine skier Gerd Schonfelder — the most decorated men’s Paralympian. The 42-year-old had already bagged two titles in the visually impaired sprint and long distance events this week at Zhangjiakou. McKeever made his Paralympic debut at Salt Lake City in 2002 and Beijing will be his last Games.
Before the race, McKeever had played down the fuss over potentially reaching Schonfelder’s record.
“I will continue to not think about them and just keep going one race at a time and (try) to enjoy this,” he said earlier this week.
Norwegian cross-country skier Ragnhild Myklebust holds the record as the most successful Winter Paralympian overall — 22 golds and 27 total medals over five games from 1988 to 2002.
China’s wheelchair curling team, the defending champions, will face off against Sweden on Saturday afternoon.
The team had a disappointing start to their competition, blaming losing their first couple of matches on nerves and pressure to perform in front of a home crowd.
But they have bounced back and were able to deny Canada a spot in the gold medal match at Friday’s semi-final.
Head coach Yue Qingshuang has taken to singing folk songs to her team before they play.
“I wanted the team to be able to relax and create some kind of atmosphere before the game, and help them perform their best,” she said.
On Friday, Canada beat Slovakia 8-3 in the bronze medal match.
The Canadians haven’t missed out on a medal since the 2006 Turin Games, and at PyeongChang they also claimed bronze.
“Just to be bringing home some hardware, it’s so special,” skip Mark Ideson said.
“The heart’s just pounding… just breathless,” teammate Ina Forrest said.
On Saturday there are three gold medal chances in the women’s alpine skiing slalom in Yanqing, in the sitting, standing and visually impaired categories.
In para ice hockey, China will play South Korea in the bronze medal match, and on Sunday Canada will square off against the US for gold.
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