Warning: rant ahead. I am totally blown away at the strength of reaction to Brian McKeever not being selected to race in the Olympic men's 50K classic XC ski race. Cross-Country Canada and the 4 skiers who raced are actually getting hate mail. (!!)
Commenters on the Globe and Mail story vary (as always) from sensible to completely hysterical - and there are a LOT of comments. I'll bet that none of the hysterical people had heard of Devon, Ivan or Brian a few months ago. Isn't it lovely that they have now become experts on the sport?
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http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/more-sports/...>
I hope Brian speaks up, as I'm sure he's horrified by the hate mail and I don't think anyone else can make a dent in this public relations disaster for CCC. (Which admittedly, they helped to bring upon themselves by playing up Brian's inspirational story in hopes of getting mega-coverage for their sport before the Olympics, without ever mentioning the wee difference between "making the team" and "being selected to race".)
Brian made the Olympic team fair and square. But even before the Olympic trials, VO2Max told me that the winner of the Olympic trial 50K race wasn't guaranteed to race in the Olympics because the top 4 Canadian guys (who were in Europe racing World Cup since they had already been named to the Olympic team) might do that race, and there were only 4 spots available.
If the coach was going to replace someone from the 50K race to put Brian in, the logical choice might well have been Devon Kershaw, who ended up coming within a hair of a medal. He'd placed 4th of the 4 men in the 30K pursuit; he'd already done a lot of racing at the Olympics; he'd lacked energy in the team relay after racing so hard and so well in the team sprint. The top-ranked Canadian Ivan Babikov would never have been dropped, yet he was the one who had the bad day while Devon had a fantastic race. The coach made the best possible choice, putting out 4 skiers who all had a chance of making the top 10 - or better - on a good day. The two best Canadian skiers on paper didn't have a great day. Luckily, there were two other skiers who did.
Brian wasn't the only XC skier selected to Canada's Olympic XC ski team who didn't get to race, and I'm sure there were other Olympians who spent little or no time competing in their sport. To suggest that he should be treated differently from skiers without disabilities is an insult to Brian and to anyone with a disability. On the contrary, I think it's great to know that his coach doesn't see Brian differently from the other skiers, so it didn't occur to him that he should make a selection to favour Brian's disability. Don't get me wrong - it would have been awesome to see him race and he totally deserved his spot on the team. It is inspirational that he qualified for the Olympic team without any asterisks, by winning the Olympic trial 50K classic race.
To suggest that one of the other skiers should have voluntarily given up his spot for Brian is unfair to these young people who have devoted years of their lives to hard training, low incomes and (often) abandoned university educations to give themselves a chance to race at the highest level and represent their (our!) country. How could anyone expect them to back out of the premier XC ski event at a home Olympic games after the coach had selected them? Maybe that's easy to say for the folks whose involvement in sport is limited to using their remote control to toggle between TSN and TSN2 and expressing their superior opinions.
OK, rant over.