Members of Congress, residents celebrate Davenport Paralympian's Beijing gold medal

Members of Congress joined Quad-City residents this week to recognize and celebrate three-time sled hockey Paralympian Kevin McKee of Davenport.

Friends, family, and supporters gathered Saturday, April 2, at Oscar's Pub in Bettendorf to celebrate McKee's recent gold-medal victory in the 2022 Winter Paralympics in Beijing.

The day before, on Friday, Iowa Republican U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks took the U.S. House floor to recognize McKee.

"Kevin has proudly represented the United States for over a decade, winning gold medals in the last three winter Paralympics," Miller-Meeks said in her speech on the U.S. House floor. "Kevin has always had a passion for sports, playing tennis in high school and wheelchair basketball in college. However, Kevin soon realized his passion for sled hockey when he started playing with the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago sled hockey club team in 2000."

Miller-Meeks added: "Paralympians like Kevin (McKee) show all of us that with hard work, dedication and drive to succeed, anything is possible."

The U.S. team beat Canada 5-0 in the final game to win the gold medal. The U.S. dominated the Paralympic sled hockey competition, outscoring opponents 30-1 in the tournament.

McKee earned his first gold medal in 2014 in Sochi, Russia, and his second in 2018 in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

McKee was born with a congenital disorder of the spine called caudal regression syndrome. The disorder impairs the development of the lower half of the body.

He was one of the first on the ice as a kid at what was then called the Quad-City Sports Center, now the River’s Edge, when Joe Lambert started the Quad City Sled Hockey Association 25 years ago with his wife.

McKee has been on the U.S. Team for 12 years.

"I don’t know if I’ll go for another one or not," McKee told a reporter upon returning home last month after competing in Beijing. "Just being older and knowing what it takes to be at that point and to see these younger guys win, too, it was pretty special."