4 février 2006

Shi Davidi

Canadians hardly knew Beckie Scott prior to the 2002 Olympics, when she left for Salt Lake City as a rising star in a sport little known on this side of the globe.

Four years later the native of Vermilion, Alta., will arrive at the Turin Winter Games as the defending cross-country skiing pursuit champion and one of the best-known faces on the Canadian Olympic team.

There are new pressures, new expectations and more demands this time around on the 31-year-old, who has grown into one of Canada's most prominent amateur athletes. Scott has also become one of sport's most passionate anti-doping advocates since her memorable run through the Soldier Hollow course.

"I know what my own expectations are and what I hope to bring the table to when I have to during my races and that's where my pressure will be coming from," Scott said Friday on a conference call from Davos, Switzerland.

"I'm approaching these Games with much of the same attitude - that I want to enjoy them, enjoy every day, enjoy my team and have it be an all-around positive time."

She should, particularly since the road from Salt Lake City to Turin was so gruelling, she contemplated leaving the sport altogether.

Scott finished third in the five-kilometre pursuit in 2002, making history as the first North American woman to win a cross-country Olympic medal. But she really left her mark over the coming months when the women who finished ahead of her, Russians Olga Danilova and Larissa Lazutina, tested positive for banned substances.

Those doping infractions triggered a lengthy 22-month run of court battles from Switzerland to Russia that would eventually lead to her receiving gold at a ceremony in Vancouver on June 25, 2004.

During that time, Scott spoke eloquently about the need to punish drug cheats in sports and to protect athletes who competed clean. Her battle helped rewrite Olympic rules so athletes caught doping at a Games loses their medals.

But that fight, along with regular competition, took a toll on her and by the end of the 2003-04 season she was spent.

"I actually prepared myself for retirement," said Scott. "I had decided to either retire or take a very long break. I wasn't sure, I just needed some time away from sport... I just wasn't convinced I had it in me to give 100 per cent anymore...

"I ended up taking five months completely off training and stepped away from sport and it gave me enough time to get some perspective and balance and some appreciation for the sport. I came back with tremendously renewed enthusiasm and excitement for it."

It has really shown this season.

Heading into this weekend's event, she has three World Cup victories and a total of six podiums. And she's been helping teammate Sara Renner of Canmore, Alta., who won a World Cup bronze on her own and a silver with Scott in the team sprint.

"I'm the Beckie Scott in waiting," Renner joked. "I train with Beckie and I get to see her strengths and I can always compare myself to the best in the world. That's pretty much an ideal situation."

Much of the credit for the profile the Canadian Nordic team now enjoys also belongs to Scott, whose Olympic medal helped attract the backing of corporate sponsors.

Canada is sending 12 cross-country skiers to Italy, including a young men's team led by veteran George Grey of Rossland, B.C., that is building toward Vancouver in 2010.

"Heading into these Olympics we've shown . . . that many athletes can fight at the front of the pack," said national team coach Dave Wood. "We can chase the podium in more than a single event and I don't think we could have said that ever before."

After World Cup races Saturday and Sunday, the cross-country team will travel to Italy on Monday, get their credentials and then head for their rented apartment, which is right by the trail.

They plan to isolate themselves there, with no visits from friends or family, as they make their final preparations.

"And avoid anyone who sneezes," Scott said laughing.

Scott is going to have a busy Olympics, competing in the 15-kilometre double pursuit, the sprint, the 10-kilometre classic, the 30-kilometre free, the team sprint and the 4x5-kilometre relay.

"It has to be a perfect day, a perfect race with everything coming together in complete harmony to be a gold-medal winning race," she said. "And I just hope that when that day comes, that will be the case."

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