Whitehorse native Graham Nishikawa is coming off a gold-medal victory in the 2022 Beijing Paralympics in which he guided Paralympic cross-country skiing legend Brian McKeever in the men’s visually impaired 12.5-kilometre skate-ski race, the final race for the longtime friends.

The Star reached Nishikawa, 38, in Canmore, where he returned Monday night after a long journey home.

Nishikawa said he was “pretty tired, actually. It was a long haul with everything around COVID, pregames and the preparation and then the Games, but happy, definitely happy.”

“It’s been a long year,” stated Nishikawa.

“The fatigue is high I think, after you come back from two weeks of high intensity.”

Nishikawa said he’s now “just trying to get things done and waking up in the middle of the night cause I’m jet-lagged.”

He explained how it felt to win one last race with his longtime friend.

“Obviously, it was an amazing race. Definitely we were trying to have fun, keep it light and definitely felt like a sense of accomplishment. For sure, relief. It was pretty tough on him, I think, after a long career and lots of emotions that day for Brian, definitely. But, we were pretty happy.”

Despite the emotions, it was all business for the two before the race.

“We put all that stuff aside before the race, and we were just trying to really focus on having a good race and trying not to let all that stuff creep in, and I think we did a great job of that ... executing our race plan. Brian was in great shape throughout the whole Games and skied super-fast. We just had to pace it properly with the warming snow and bad conditions, but definitely we were pretty happy at the end.”

The super-guide shed some light on their pre-race strategy.

“We had chatted a lot before, mostly on pacing and how he was feeling. He had raced a lot and was tired. But he put in a huge race that day and was definitely in control. We just needed to start a bit slowly and the Americans went out fast and we knew, after all these years, not to panic.

“Our plan was to start going on the third lap and it worked to perfection. Everyone else kind of got tired and we went faster by the end.

“Just lots of experience in that kind of – if you go too fast, then you blow up, your race is over and in that soft, really slow snow, if you go out too fast, you can bog down. You have to focus on pacing and technique. I think we did a good job.”

Nishikawa said despite the Americans having a 10-second lead at the start of the race “it was definitely in control. We knew that we could pick it up. You don’t want to get too far back in case somebody’s having a big day, but that was definitely the plan, and it worked.

“Brian was like ‘that’s perfect. We’re 10 seconds back.’ That’s experience. Just don’t panic, don’t change your plan, keep going , and the next split after, it was ‘you’re five seconds back’, so we knew we were pulling the time back from them and then the next split we were in the lead by 10 seconds. It’s a good feeling when you hear that out there on the course.”

Nishikawa and McKeever took the lead at the end of the second lap in the five-lap race.

The two athletes had a welcoming committee waiting at the end of the race.

“Robin, Brian’s brother, was there at the end and Russell (Kennedy), the other guide, was there and the whole team came and other teams were there as well and congratulating him.

“Within the Paralympic sports, everyone respects him so much. He’s definitely been the leader and has brought the skiing to a new level, so there was lots of people giving him hugs and props,” recalled Nishikawa.

“It was pretty special to be a part of. We were reminiscing the night before about all the racing we’ve done. I started with him in 2014 in Sochi. It was my first experience guiding and my first race with him, he fell right off the start of the final. We ended up winning that race.

“It’s been incredible to be a part of helping him, being a part of the team, it feels like you’re part of something special. And then to hear all these stats that I had no idea about, like he hadn’t lost a Paralympic race since 2006 or something. It’s overwhelming to hear all those numbers, but, at the end of the day, when I see what he does, he’s super-professional, he loves skiing – I’m not surprised he has that much success.”

Nishikawa said he’ll miss the training with McKeever the most.

“Honestly, probably the training camps, the off-season. That’s when all the hard work is done. We’ve had a lot of fun travelling around the world. I enjoy the training I guess the most and we’ve been doing lots of adventure running in high-altitude places like Mammoth, California ... on those training camps – with Russell as well – we’re super-lucky to do that and see the world and train.”

They did running, roller-skiing and cycling in the Sierra Mountains in California at an altitude of 2500 metres every year in September.

“We’ll train four or five hours a day. You get pretty tired, but that’s when you build the most fitness, at that altitude, but those are pretty awesome days.”

Nishikawa said that his Beijing Paralympic experience overall was great.

“To pull the Games off with a pandemic was a big step and then with the ... Ukraine situation, there was lots of bigger things going on, but when you got down to it, it was just full-on racing and everybody did a good job of just putting it all aside and I thought there was a lot of great racing, not just in our category, but seeing the rest of the team really perform as well was amazing. It just felt like everyone was able to focus on skiing fast and trying to win.”

The Canadian athletes were able to offer their support to the Ukrainians.

“We’re close with a couple guides that I’ve known for years ... nothin’ we can do, and it’s incredible what they were able to do when all that’s going on, actually focusing on their racing and it’s incredible. But just trying to give some encouraging words and they definitely felt that the whole world was behind them, but definitely a very difficult situation.”

Nishikawa said his teammates’ performances stood out the most for him at the Paralympics.

“Just seeing some of my teammates not just win gold, but some of their bronze medal performances and some of their fourth-place performances were incredible.

“Brian has led this team for years, but now Natalie (Wilkie) has won two golds and Mark (Arendz) and Collin (Cameron) – it’s not just Brian, so I just think , overall, seeing some incredible performances from the rest of the Canadian team and just seeing how the team fed off the positivity of everyone else and people just performed incredibly.”

Nishikawa is planning on going into coaching full-time now.

“Last year I started as the development coach for Para Nordic, so I’m not going far. The plan is to take on a little bit more ... I’ve been working with some athletes for about a year now and that’s my plan – to stick with Para Nordic.”

Nishikawa added it’s a huge honour to be named a recipient of the Premier’s Award of Sport Excellence.

“Just thinking back, how long ago I started skiing at Whitehorse Cross-Country Ski Club and my goal was always to make the Olympics and race for the national team and this all started on those trails there with the test program and then the Yukon ski team and my coach was Alain Masson – still coaching.

“Quite the journey, never had an inkling that Para Nordic, or parasports, was even a thing, until I met Brian during my racing days and then became friends with him and then he asked me to come to Sochi in 2014 and I had no idea what to expect. Three Games later, we’re winning medals and i’m going into coaching Para Nordics. It’s just kind of awesome to think back of all the good memories and where it all started was skiing in Whitehorse. I’m very lucky to have done all this stuff,” he said.

“I’m always super-grateful that I was able to grow up in Whitehorse and (for) all the support I’ve had from the Yukon over the years. It still definitely feels like home – just been great to represent the Yukon.”