Wednesday, February 20, 2002
Bravo, Beckie and Sara
Skiers did Canada proud
By TERRY JONES -- Edmonton Sun
SALT LAKE CITY -- She's not just another Canadian who didn't manage to manufacture a medal.
Her name should not be added to the ever-growing Canadian Olympic underachiever file or pile.
In fact, at these Winter Olympics, she's the best example of exactly the opposite.
Yesterday Beckie Scott of Vermilion, Alberta, finished fifth in the cross country sprint.
Fifth.
Canada no more wants to read about fifth-place people right now than it did as the days dwindled down to a precious few in the under-funded failure by Canada at the Sydney Olympics.
But compared to where we've been as a country in cross-country skiing, dreaming of finishing fifth was as incomprehensible four years ago as was dreaming of first.
Scott won the first Canadian medal in the history of cross-country skiing at the Olympics, a bronze in the five kilometre pursuit, and finished sixth a few days before that in the classic.
COSTLY MISTAKE
She was leading and 200 metres from the finish line in the semifinal yesterday when she made a mistake that cost her a trip to the A final, cost her a chance to be Canada's only double medallist and may have cost her a chance to be Canadian flagbearer in the closing ceremonies.
"I'm not totally disappointed. I'm going home with a medal,'' she said. "But that trip to the podium was so much fun I wanted to do it again.''
Third. Fifth. Sixth.
That's the line on Beckie Scott at these Olympics. And she and Sara Renner, the Canmore, Alberta girl who was ninth here yesterday, still have an event to go, teamed with Jaime and Amanda Fortier of Edmonton in the relay where they suddenly figure to be in the fourth, fifth, sixth or seventh range.
Scott's bronze beat Canada's previous best-ever at the Olympics, a 45th place by Lucy Steel in Nagano. And her sixth in the classic beat the previous Canadian watermark of 26th by Sharon Firth in 1972 in Nagano. There was no previous best to smash to smithereens in the sprint. It was the first time the event was included in the Olympics.
"I'm really disappointed I didn't get a chance to be in the A final to go for a medal,'' said the 28-year-old.
"I made a mistake. I tried to lead early on and it was really easy to catch drafts out there today. I was squeezed a little outside at the turn and ...''
It wasn't the end of her day. In cross-country skiing the semifinalists who don't make it to the A final have to go back and do another 1.5 kilometres in the B final to settle positions five through eight.
Scott went for it.
If our hockey teams don't win gold, they can't seem to manufacture motivation to go for a bronze, but this girl went back out there and put everything she had into the B final to win it and finish fifth.
"When you step to the line, it's still a race,'' she said. "And fifth place at the Olympics is still not terrible.''
She knows she's accomplished something that could change the lay of the land in her sport back home, but there's a bigger picture, too. In the next few days you are probably going to read a lot about the lack of Canadian funding just as you did late in the Sydney Olympics.
What we're talking about in this sport is almost no funding at all.
"I hope doing what we're doing up here might mean more funding for our sport. Since Nagano, it's dwindled to almost nothing,'' Scott said.
Nothing will be about $400,000 next year.
"We should take a long look at the successes of Australia and Norway,'' she says of two countries enjoying Olympic success.
But inspiring kids is her biggest hope from what she's accomplished here.
They've come a long way, baby.
"We were the worst team in Nagano,'' Renner said.
"After Nagano we decided it was sink or swim. We felt we had to have some success to get the funding and to keep kids in the sport.
"We gave it our best for four years. A lot of perseverence paid off.''
Renner isn't whining about funding for herself. "I got what I needed to be the best I could be,'' she said.
"But that money was focused on so few. We have no men's team. These results are for the kids who are at home on the fringe.''
IT'LL GET YOU A BEER
Renner was in the top 20 of the other two events. This wasn't just about Scott, although being in the top 20 and seven dollars U.S. will buy you a beer here.
"These are the best results I've ever had and it's at the Olympics,'' said the 24-year-old.
"And Canadians should be so proud of Beckie. She's come so far. She has a medal.
"We skied the races of our lives.
"We come into the cafeteria and hear 'Bravo, Canada.' I've never heard that before and that's pretty cool.''
Bravo, Beckie. You, too, Sara.
2002 Games Cross Country Skiing Coverage
