Canadian athlete Brian McKeever won a recent 50 km able-bodied race in Norway which made him eligible for Canada's team for the Winter Olympics which takes place in Vancouver in February 2010.

A legally blind cross-country skier could become the first man to compete in both the Winter Paralympics and Winter Olympics.

His place on the team is not confirmed, though, and the skier will learn of his fate when the Canadian cross-country ski federation picks its team in January.

He told The Associated Press: "With a visual disability, the body is still 100 percent so I can push it pretty hard on the uphills. It shows we're in top physical condition as well and hopefully people will come out and watch the Paralympics in 2010 in Vancouver."

Five athletes have competed in the summer Olympics as well as the Paralympics, but McKeever would be the first to do so in the winter version.

Short-sighted skier Manuel Osborne-Paradis revealed at the start of the season that he will try wearing new hard contact lenses, legal in international skiing, as the soft ones are banned.

(The End)