15 février 2006

PRAGELATO, Italy—There may have been no baton pass like it in Olympic history: At a Winter Games where sportsmanship has been questioned, a selfless act by a Norwegian helped Canada capture a silver medal yesterday.

Cross-country skier Sara Renner broke her ski pole while battling for the lead on the third lap in the women's team sprint final. Within moments, she was handed another pole by someone she could only identify after the race as a "mystery man." It turned out to be Bjornan Hakensmoen, the Norwegian cross-country ski boss.

Renner and partner Beckie Scott went on to capture the silver medal, losing by six-tenths of a second to Sweden. Norway, in contention at the time of the incident, wound up out of the medals in fourth place.

Hakensmoen shrugged off any suggestion his deed was heroic. He said it had been determined at an officials' meeting the previous evening that anyone on the course must react in the manner he did.

"This was a reflex, more or less," he said. The race should be based on the fitness of the athletes, and "should not be decided by the skis or the poles," he added.

But Renner's husband, alpine skier Thomas Grandi, who watched the race on TV in the alpine village where he's training for his races, said it was a special act.

"That's what sport is all about, giving everyone a level playing field."

But one of the other Norwegian coaches suggested tongue-in-cheek that had it been one of their athletes in trouble and the Swedish cross-country boss was closest to the scene, a ski pole would never have been offered.

"Everyone loves the Canadians," smiled Renner. "We're set wherever we go."

At the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, Canadian Larry Lemieux, competing in the Finn sailing class, was in second place when he broke off the race to rescue an injured Singaporean sailor whose boat had capsized. He was later recognized for epitomizing the Olympic spirit.

But sportsmanship is not taken for granted at these Olympics, with drug testers using undercover methods to conduct snap doping tests on athletes. Even the Canadians have come under fire with the women's hockey team accused of being poor sports this week by an American player for running up big scores against Italy and Russia in round-robin play.

Yet it was fitting that Renner and Scott, who have championed fair play through more than a decade of international competition, were beneficiaries of an unselfish act.

While it was an act of generosity that gave Renner and Scott a chance, it was their legs that carried them to the podium.

The mishap slowed Renner down, but not by much. Even though the Norwegian pole was about 12 centimetres longer than the one she would normally use, she stayed within striking distance in fourth, 2.5 seconds behind frontrunning Finland. Scott then took over and reeled off a great leg to overhaul the field and put Canada slightly in front again after the fourth lap.

Teams of two racers compete in relay over six laps of 1.1 kilometre each.

It was tightly contested to the end, but Sweden took the gold in 16 minutes, 36.9 seconds, six-tenths of a second ahead of Canada. Finland took the bronze.

Renner and Scott were exuberant on the podium in front of a crowd that included their beaming parents. This moment could not have been envisioned when they made their Olympic debut at Nagano in 1998, finishing out of the top 50 in most races.

"We were scarred but not broken from it," said Scott. "We came back wanting more than ever not to be at the back of the pack. It's a really long, hard climb up to the top."

Such was their desperation to raise funds and awareness five years ago that Scott and Renner helped organized the Nordic Nudes calendar with tasteful shots of them and their teammates. It was a big seller, but not appreciated by everyone.

"I remember when we did the Nordic Nudes calendar, this reporter asked us `How does it feel to get all this attention when you're last in the woods in Finland?'" Renner said earlier this year. "It was at the 2001 world championships. That pissed us off, you know. It was a huge motivation. They were looking down at us all the time. We made a conscious decision that we weren't going to settle for that."

They didn't. Scott won gold at Salt Lake City in 2002, although it took her 28 months to get it after the two Russians who finished ahead of her were caught doping. Renner won bronze at last year's world championships. Scott has won three World Cup races this season, and Renner is coming off a silver medal at the last World Cup stop.

They entered yesterday's race not as medal favourites but as serious contenders. As they were finishing their warmup, Scott turned to Renner and said "We've come a long way, baby."

"This may be one of the last sprint relays we ever do together," said Scott, who is contemplating retirement. There was a lot of laughter yesterday between the two longtime friends, who first began skiing together as teenagers in the Alberta provincial program.

"We've seen a lot of girls come and go and we've had to spend years together alone on the World Cup up in these places like 300 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle," said Scott. "We kept it light the whole time and kept the humour in it and have been laughing for the last 10 years."

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