Beckie Scott of Vermilion, Alta., showed the potential to become Canada's best-ever female cross country skier last season. She scored Canada's first women's World Cup points in several years at a meet last winter in Italy. She finished 29th in the 15 kilometre freestyle to qualify for the 1998 Olympics in Nagano. The following weekend she posted a 15th place in the five kilometre classic at a World Cup in Sweden. At the world championships she displayed her versatility cracking the top-30 in four separate races. So far she is the only Canadian female cross country skier qualified for the Games. Scott began to cross country ski around the same time she began to walk. By the age 12 she was already winning medals at the junior nationals. A three-time Canadian junior overall champion she competed at four world junior championships the first one at age 16. The 23-year-old arts student won all the women's races at the 1997 Jeep Nationals in Thunder Bay.