For Robin McKeever, the perhaps lesser known of the now famous McKeever brothers, the decision was simple.
An Olympian himself, he knew all about the drive to push your body to its physical limits, to have that goal in mind of winning gold. And he knew just how much his younger brother Brian, who was losing his eyesight, loved to ski because it was exactly the same way he felt about skiing.
So, nine years ago when a nervous Brian, six years his junior, approached Robin to be his guide in his quest to be a Paralympian, his answer was "yes."
"It was just a natural step for me to guide my younger brother," said Robin, his newest gold medal hanging round his neck, his brother Brian by his side, his arms around Robin's shoulders at a packed Whistler Canada Paralympic House on Monday. "There's only the two of us in the family and he was just dealt a bad hand with eyesight whereas I was dealt a good hand. We had a 50/50 chance and that's the odds."
That decision to guide has since transformed into eight Paralympic medals for the pair, the latest of which was a gold, won on home soil just south of Whistler in the Callaghan Valley - the first gold by Canadian athletes at the 2010 Paralympic Games.
It's a special gold for them.
"It's a bit of a monkey off our back because that's the one we've never won, the 20 km," said Brian McKeever, who is 30 years old. "It's our third attempt at it in eight years."
Plus, it comes after a roller coaster two months of emotional ups and downs when Brian thought he would be competing in the Olympics, only to have his hopes dashed at the 11 th hour.
To have the gold around his neck more than makes up for that disappointment.
But the long road to Monday's gold medal hasn't always been easy.
It began in 2001. Back then Robin was in his prime, on the national team, having raced for Canada at the 1998 Nagano Games. Brian, who was diagnosed with Stargardt's disease at 18 and now has about eight per cent vision, simply wasn't up to his level when they began skiing together.
"That was me yelling at him to wait!" described Brian of their partnership eight years ago.
One of their first times racing together as a team was at the Salt Lake IPC World Cup final in March 2001. Brian ended up headfirst down a steep embankment. The experience, however, had a somewhat happier ending; the brothers went on the win the World Cup together the following day.
"In 2002 I was more like the older brother and guide and coach rather than a team," recalled Robin. "For me, I feel more like a team now. When we race the event together it feels more like we're both working at our max and just trying to give 100 per cent."
To watch them compete in 2010, skiing in sync around Whistler Paralympic Park, is to see just how far they've come.
It was undoubtedly a hard push to win, coming in 51 minutes, 14.7 seconds, just 40.9 seconds ahead of Russia's Nicolay Polukhim and his guide Andrey Tokarev. The bronze went to the team from Belarus, Vasili Shaptsiaboi and his guide Mikalai Shablouski, who finished in 52:22.5.
"I don't think we actually communicated at all (between 10 to 15 km)," said Robin. "We were going as hard as we could.
"The level of competition here is very hard."
That success, however, has Robin pondering his future role as his brother's guide.
In addition to training as an elite athlete, Robin has a job - technical coach for the Para-Nordic team - and a family, which includes his wife and six-year-old son.
"I can see myself doing this for another 20 years, if I love the sport... just not for my brother Brian," said Robin, at an earlier press conference before the Games began. "He's too fast. It's a full time job training just trying to keep up with Brian. When you have a family, and you have a full time job on the side to make ends meet, I'm not in the public spotlight like Brian is so I have to have other means as well," said Robin.
That spotlight has been shining non-stop on the younger McKeever since he made the Olympic team this year - the first Paralympic athlete to do so.
It was a crushing blow for him when coaches decided not to put him in the 50 km race on the last day of the Olympic Games.
"It hurts as much as the day that I was told I was going to lose my eyesight," said Brian. "That's how big it was for me. It was huge, crushing.
"Again, I got over the eyes, I'll get over this."
His brother has no doubt about that. He believes Brian will be competing at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia. Whether or not he's there beside him competing in the 2014 Paralympics in Sochi is another story.
"I will be doing my best to guide Brian in four years but we have to see as time goes and I get older and have maybe a little bit more on my plate with family and that has to weigh into the decisions," said Robin.
Brian quietly listens to that comment and adds:
"The interesting thing is I think as much as we're getting older, we're also getting better. It's been very rewarding the last four years learning what we've learned about training, about racing, and how to get to be at a high level and I still feel that we're just sort of scratching the surface of our abilities."
