Decorated Paralympic skier McKeever to bow out after Beijing

Beijing's Winter Paralympic Games will be the sixth and the last for 13-time gold medallist Brian McKeever.

Canada's most decorated Winter Paralympian has not only amassed a total of 17 medals in cross-country skiing since 2002. The 42-year-old from Canmore, Alta., also helped reshape how Canadians and the world view athletes with a disability.

The 2022 Paralympic Games open Friday. McKeever is among 49 athletes representing Canada in hockey, curling, alpine and Nordic skiing and snowboarding for 10 days.

The visually impaired skier was the first Canadian to be named to both Olympic and Paralympic teams in 2010. He qualified to race the Olympic 50 kilometres in Whistler, B.C.

McKeever was heartbroken when he wasn't chosen to compete in it. He knew what it would have meant to the Paralympic movement if he had.

He went on to win three Paralympic gold medals in Whistler with his brother Robin guiding him.

The siblings combined for 10 medals, including seven gold, before Robin retired and made way for other guides. 

The brothers were featured just last month in an automaker's Super Bowl advertisement.

"The Paralympic movement is an important one because it's about respect," McKeever told The Canadian Press.

"When we started, Robin and I didn't know this, but Paralympics stands for 'parallel Games.' It's not paraplegic and most people don't know that, so we also have a bit of a marketing problem.

"If I can leave something behind, I hope it is that we made Paralympics more visible. We made the movement more visible. We helped to show that there was parity, certainly at the highest levels between Olympics and Paralympics, by qualifying for both Games."

McKeever, a 20-time world para champion, was the first Canadian athlete with