Reflections from Milano Cortina

Mount Royal’s Xavier McKeever has had a year of firsts. Not only did he make his Olympic debut, he also began his studies as a Bachelor of Aviation Management student.

McKeever competed in four events at the 2026 Winter Olympic Games in Italy, finishing an impressive 13th in the 20-kilometre men’s skiathlon. McKeever also participated in the men’s cross-country skiing sprint classic, coming in 41st overall.

The 22-year-old was also part of a couple teams at the Olympics in addition to competing individually. McKeever was on the men’s 4x7.5 kilometre relay team, which came in fifth place, marking Canada’s best-ever finish in the event. Antoine Cyr and McKeever also competed in the men’s team free sprint, where they placed sixth.

It was an absolutely stellar debut for McKeever, given that it was his first Olympics. However, he’s not unfamiliar with the Games or high-level competition.

Both of McKeever’s parents are Olympians, and his uncle Brian McKeever is well-known for having won more than 20 medals at the Paralympic Games.

“It’s been really conducive to my career to have them around,” he says, noting that it’s a unique shared experience among the family.

Despite cross-country skiing being the family sport, McKeever credits his parents for allowing him to try a variety of sports and allowing him to find what worked for him.

“I feel like choosing my own path through skiing, having the opportunity to try many sports growing up and having my parents not necessarily wanting me to go into a cross-country skiing career allowed me to find my own way through,” McKeever says.

Having the freedom to try various sports also removed some of the pressure of competing.

“I don’t feel any pressure with McKeever as my last name. The pressure I feel is self-inflicted and I have that drive to want to succeed.”

From the slopes to your social feed

Chances are you may have seen McKeever in your social media feeds during the Olympics. When he wasn’t skiing or cheering on other Team Canada athletes, he was participating in many social media trends that arose from the Winter Games.

Most notably, athletes started sharing vlogs from the Olympic Village, showing the rest of the world what they were experiencing in Milan: everything from fashion to what they were eating and what their sleeping quarters looked like.

Admittedly not the best at social media, McKeever says he started posting vlogs with his friend and teammate Tom Stephen.

“I think being here gives you such a big platform for what you can share with people and what people are interested in.”

Stephen and McKeever had talked about doing such a thing before arriving in Milan but when they were actually there, it came more naturally than expected.

“It’s kind of fun to make some content that people might enjoy,” he says, adding that the average person watching the games doesn’t have much insight into the day-to-day life of an athlete.

“It was really cool to share that with people. We had a lot of positive feedback, which was cool,” McKeever remarks, comparing it to a digital scrapbook. “We’ll be able to look back in a few years and rewatch those videos and have a laugh about what we were doing.”

Closing out the games, McKeever says it’s given him perspective into how and what he might want to share online going forward as an athlete.

Studying and training

Apparently, competing at the Olympics isn’t enough of a reason to take a semester off. Despite being away for much of the winter training and then competing, McKeever is still taking one asynchronous course online as he works towards obtaining his Bachelor of Aviation Management.

Living and training in Canmore for the majority of the time, McKeever says the program having some online course offerings has been huge. Although, he recognizes that eventually he will need to take some in-person classes on campus in order to complete his degree.

In the meantime, McKeever works closely with his academic advisor to ensure he isn’t taking on too much given his busy schedule. While he might not be following the standard four-year undergraduate journey, he is excited for what a career in aviation might look like one day.

“Aviation has always been a huge passion of mine. I love travelling and I have always loved airplanes,” McKeever says, joking that his dream of being a pilot has flown away at present.

He says he would still love to get his private plane licence at some point, but right now the focus remains on skiing.

“The aviation management program just offers so many opportunities when you are finished with it. That’s what the most attractive part of it was for me, just the open opportunities.”