BECKIE SCOTT PASSES TORCH BY HELPING KIDS LEARN TO SKI
Scott making sure to lend helping hand
More than six years have passed, and Beckie Scott still can’t comprehend the fuss over the whole ski-pole incident.
Yes, she won Olympic silver in the team sprint with Sara Renner thanks in no small part to the generosity of Norwegian ski coach. Bjornar Haakensmoen. And yes, she will be forever grateful for Haakensmoen handing Renner a replacement for her broken ski pole in the final at the Turin Games — an act of kindness that ultimately cost his country a medal as Norway slipped to fourth place.
“But really, that was expected,” says Scott, a 38-year-old mother of two. “Had it been anybody else on the course, they would have done the same thing. It just happened that it was a Norwegian coach at that moment who had a pole for Sara.
“If someone hadn’t done it, then that would have been exceptional. It’s really more common to give people poles and help them out than it is to do nothing.”
Lending a helping hand is more than just a matter of sportsmanship for Scott, the pioneer of women’s cross-country skiing in Canada.
Lending a helping hand is a way of life for the 2002 Olympic gold medallist.
For proof, look no farther than the trip Scott took last week to Conklin, nestled between Fort McMurray and Lac La Biche and the Metis community of Kikino. The trip came about as part of her ongoing involvement with Ski Fit North, a program designed to teach cross-country skiing to aboriginal and Metis kids in the northern part of the province.
This weekend, she is hosting eight aboriginal and Metis students in Canmore as special guests at the Alberta World Cup.
“Apart from spending time with my own children, there’s nothing I would rather do than spend time with the kids from these communities,” says Scott, a member of the International Olympic Committee’s athlete’s commission and the World Anti-Doping Agency executive committee.
“They are just so welcoming and affectionate and fun and enjoyable to be around.
“It’s the most uplifting thing — even though I’m acutely aware and sensitive to the personal challenges and the difficult situations that so many of them are in.”
The personal challenges, for some, are grave.
“In our community, 100 per cent of our elders are type-2 diabetic,” says Laurie Thompson, principal at Kikino.
“That puts every one of our kids at high risk for diabetes. They’re at high risk for everything from high blood pressure to heart conditions ... We’re dealing with obesity in our schools. Some of our kids already have high blood pressure. These kids are growing up with high stress, although I think that’s true in the general population.
“It’s imperative that we’re not just building the muscle in their brains but that we’re helping them look after their bodies.”
Enter Ski Fit North, run jointly by Cross Country Canada and Cross Country Alberta with support from the Norwegian oil giant, Statoil. Last year alone, the program reached out to more than 3,300 children aged six to 14 in 21 different communities.
Skis, poles, and boots are supplied along with free lessons for a sport perfectly suited for kids in remote communities with little in the way of infrastructure.
Some schools are also cutting their own trails for use by anyone in the community.
“We almost exclusively do individual sports here,” says Jack Howell, principal at the kindergarten-toGrade 9 Conklin Community School. “We only have 35 kids, so we don’t cut it for team sports. We don’t have the numbers.
“Skiing has opened the possibilities.”
In a perfect world, Scott would love to see one of her Ski Fit North kids fall in love with the sport and one day make the Canadian Olympian team. But teaching kids to shoot for goals of any kind — not necessarily in sport — is the primary objective.
“Beckie tells them to strive for excellence not from somebody else’s perspective, but their own,” Thompson says. “Only you can define your level of excellence.”
The Kikino and Conklin kids flew down to Canmore on Thursday (several had never been on a plane before.) They woke up Friday morning to the majesty of the Rocky Mountains.
In the afternoon, they went up to the Canmore Nordic Centre to eat lunch with Scott and ski with the Olympic superstar on some of the most stunning trails in the world.
“Nutrition is important,” said 11-year-old Carson McNamara, echoing the message espoused by Scott. “It’s better to be fit and have fun rather than sit inside and be a couch potato.”
Before Scott visited Kikino for the first time a couple of years ago, Thompson had her students conduct extensive Internet research about the incoming Olympian.
McNamara, for one, remembers the part about the Norwegian ski coach and the importance of lending a helping hand.
“I remember that Beckie Scott and her teammate were racing at the Olympics,” McNamara said. “Beckie’s teammate broke her pole, and the coach handed her one of his extra ski poles – even though his team was in second or third position and that knocked his team out. “It means he is a good sport.” So over in Norway, Bjornar Haakensmoen can rest easy in the knowledge that Beckie Scott embraces the meaning of paying it forward.
For proof, simply ask the kids of Kikino and Conklin.