Beckie Scott was undecided whether she wanted to continue her racing career following the 2003-2004 season. She stopped training after the last race of the 2004 season and used the spring and most of the summer to figure out if she wanted to continue to race or not. This was not done to focus on the 2005 Worlds but rather to figure out if she would have the desire to continue racing through the 2006 Olympics in Torino, Italy or not.
The summer of 2004 was spent quite a bit differently than the previous 10 summers of Beckie's career. She and her husband Justin finished building their home in Canada, got a puppy, did a little sea-kayaking and hiking, and basically enjoyed life as non-racers. The break was as much a mental one as physical, and it provided her with renewed enthusiasm and energy for the skiing life.
At the end of August, Beckie had decided that racing through the 2006 Olympics was something she wanted to do and started up with a couple adjustment weeks before full training resumed in September of 2004. Doing well at Words became a goal, but Beckie realized that she would enter the World Championship with roughly half of the training volume of her strongest opponents.
The training was for that reason adjusted and intensified. The fall training went well and so did North American December Super Tour races. Tune-up races for World showed great promise, but catching a cold right prior to the last World cup race before Worlds was a major setback.
Beckie’s World Championship results were still SOLID: 14th in the 10-kilometer skate, 4th in the 15-kilometer pursuit, 13th in the sprint and 16th in the 30-kilometer classic.
World Cup races after Worlds showed that Beckie was back among the Worlds best skiers: 5th in the Lathi 10-k freestyle, 7th in the Drammen and Stockholm sprints and 7th in World Cup finale pursuit in Falun, Sweden.
However, top-ten or even top five is not Beckie’s goal. A chance at another Olympic medal is what’s on her mind. Skiing well in World Cup races is a good aid in fine-tuning and adjusting your training. It confirms that what you are doing works for you and you find out what you need to adjust or improve.
Being a part of “Team Beckie Scott†as a coach/adviser I got a chance to be involved in the first serious training week in September last season.
Last week I returned from Bend, Oregon where Beckie lives. We did twelve training sessions in six days. Beckie resumed normal training at the end of April this season — No five-months off in an Olympic year! She is undoubtedly in better shape this June compared to last June.
Beckie’s training is very ski specific and built upon what has been learned from last season, and the years leading up to the 2002 Olympics. Here are some photos from last weeks training.
