Canadian McKeever equals Schönfelder's record

Canada’s Brian McKeever has equaled German Gerd Schönfelder’s Paralympic record.

Zhangjiakou (DPA) – The visually impaired cross-country skier won her 16th gold medal in the middle distance at the Games in Beijing on Saturday. With the same number of victories, former ski racer Schönfelder was the only record winner at the Paralympic Winter Games.

Records don’t mean anything to him, “to be honest,” McKeever insisted: “I always just wanted to have fun. Records happen. It’s cool, but that never got my attention.” It doesn’t look like he’ll do any better than the 51-year-old Schönfelder. Sunday’s relay race will be his last start at the Paralympics and he’s not considered a gold medalist with Canada. “But who knows,” McKeever said with a laugh: ” Other crazy things have happened.” But she holds on to her resignation, announced before the Games. “I’m old and grey. I wake up in pain and fall asleep in pain. So it’s a matter of time,” he said with a laugh.

Schönfelder won his run from Albertville 1992 to Vancouver 2010 and retired in 2011. In 2018, the athlete with a severed shoulder was the first disabled athlete to be inducted into the German Sports Hall of Fame. Salt Lake City McKeever has won the gold medal at least twice in every sport since 2002. And only in cross-country skiing. In biathlon, he won only a bronze medal.