CANADIAN HEROES
Beckie Scott

The world of competitive cross-country skiing is a world few Canadians know anything about. But in that world, Beckie Scott is a star. She even has a facility named after her: the Beckie Scott Nordic Center at Panorama Mountain Village in Invermere, B.C., and there's also the Beckie Scott Loppet in her hometwon of Vermilion. More Canadians may get to know her better, at least for one day, at the Salt Lake City Games where she is considered a serious medal contender.

Scott has been a trailblazer for women's nordic sport in Canada. Last season she posted Canada's best ever result in women's cross country skiing placing 11th in the pursuit and won Canada's first World Cup medal in more than 10 years placing third in the sprint.

"There hasn't been one thing that I can pinpoint that explains why I've had such strong performances the last few years," said Scott, who'll race the 10 kilometre classic, the pursuit, sprint race and relay at the Olympics. "It probably all comes down to my training and preparation. This year I feel confident that I can challenge for a medal at the Games. It's certainly not impossible."

She currently lives in Bend, Oregon and her coach resides at Park City, Utah which for the past three years has allowed her to train on the Salt Lake City Games Olympic course at Soldier Hollow, Utah. Scott says her knowledge of the course should give her a mental advantage over the competition.

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.

Off the trails, Scott is leading the charge in an anti-doping campaign in her sport after a scandal rocked last year's world championships. She's calling for the International Ski Federation to be more aggressive in its efforts to catch the cheats.

"We started a petition after the worlds pointing out that the governing body wasn't doing all it could to stamp out doping," Scott said. "We got over a hundred signatures and I think it was an eye-opener for FIS (the International Ski Federation). I think athletes are only half of the problem the other is coming from our own governing body."

In addition this year Scott spearheaded a Canadian team challenge to their U.S. counterparts to donate all prize money won from a recent Continental Cup competition in B.C. to the UNICEF relief efforts in Afghanistan.

Lazutina, Danilova postpone IOC appeal

Beckie Scott is still likely to have her Olympic bronze medal in cross-country skiing upgraded to gold, but she'll have to wait a bit longer, since Russian skiers Larissa Lazutina and Olga Danilova have suspended their appeals against their disqualification from the Salt Lake Winter Games.

Lazutina still rates as one of the winningest athletes in Olympic history, even after she lost her gold medal in the 30-kilometre classical race at the end of the Salt Lake Games when she tested positive for the EPO-like endurance enhancer darbepoetin.

Danilova was also disqualified from that event, but like Lazutina, she was not stripped of the medals she won previously at the Salt Lake Games.

But FIS later ruled that Lazutina had positive drug tests in December and disqualified her retroactively from that date forward. If her appeal of that suspension fails, then she will likely be stripped of all her medals from the Salt Lake Games, including her silver in the 2X5km pursuit, in which Scott won the bronze.

That would move Scott, a native of Vermilion, Alta., up to a silver medal.

Danilova, who won gold in the pursuit, was simply suspended from the date on which she had her positive test at the Olympics.

Scott, along with six Norwegian cross-country skiers, have presented their own case at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, calling for Lazutina and Danilova to both be stripped of all their 2002 Olympic medals.

Meanwhile, the case of Spain's Johann Muehlegg, who had his 50km gold medal taken away after a positive test for darbepoetin but was allowed to keep his other two gold medals, is going ahead at the court.