Beckie Scott strides up the first hill in the 10K classic

Beckie Scott takes 6th Place
On The Course and Inside The Athletes Compound
By Torbjorn Karlsen

February 15th 2002

The Women's 10-K Classic Race
During the women's 10-K classic race I was giving splits for the Canadian Team on the third hill at one kilometer into the race. This station is the first one and gives the skiers an idea about their opening pace. Beckie Scott had a late start with bib number 55, right behind Norway's Bente Skari. 61 skiers started this race and 59 finished. Bente passed me in 9th place and Beckie in 10th place, 13 and 14 seconds off the leader, Olga Danilova. It's a very tough course and a consistent pace on the borderline of how much lactate you can handle is important. Too much lactate at this altitude too early makes you "blow up" and you won't recover. The easy sections are simply not long or easy enough. From studying the official timing sheets after the race, I saw that at 2K Bente moved to 4th and Beckie to 11th. At the 5.8K mark Bente was still in 4th and Beckie had moved up to 6th place. At the 8.7k mark Bente had moved into 3rd and

Bente on her way to victory in the 10K

Beckie had dropped slightly to 7th. At the finish it was Bente who had put on a huge surge to win by 2.5 seconds. Beckie was 6th - the Best ever result for a North American woman in the Olympics and the best North American result since Bill Koch in the 1976 Olympics.

Beckie was very happy with the race and her spirit heading into the women's pursuit, the sprint and the relay is very high. She has, in the past, skied even better in these events. I knew by the way she beat me in the time trial 5 days ago that she was in shape and today's result proved it. From the split stations we know that she skied very well in the rolling part and uphills but lost a little ground in the easy sections and downs. She had good skis so the message is to be more aggressive on the flats with her double poling and take more chances in the downhills. We also know that the speed and lactate tolerance is there since she had the second fastest last 1.3K only beaten by Skari by 3.8 seconds. That section was from halfway up the last long "killer" uphill, down the last long downhill, up the steep little hill before gliding down to the stadium and sprinting 150 meter to the finish. I was particularly pleased with this section because this is what she needs for the pursuit and the sprint.

The US women did not have a good day and showed that you need a National team with more than one skier, Nina Kemppel, in order to expect results. Nina is dedicated and a hard worker but you can't do it by yourself. You need teammates and hard training camps with skiers

Pat Weaver had a great race in the 15K Classic

that can challenge you. The Canadians, on the other hand, have an excellent National Team program of five skiers and they have all skied well here so far (Sara Renner was not far behind Beckie in 15th place today).

The Men's Race
In the men's race, I thought my Regnly split timer was incorrect when John Bauer came by in 4th place and Patrick Weaver in 10th. Yes, there were better skier starting behind them, but they ended up in 12th and 16th place with Kris Freeman in 22nd place. The best showing since the Bill Koch days. The field was not the best with only 10 red group skiers (out of 30) in the race but they still skied very well. Many skiers seem to focus on Friday's Pursuit race. Should the US ski team take much credit for these skiers' results? In my opinion, no. In Freeman's case, credit is

John Bauer tucks into the stadium just before posting the best North American male Olympic finish in 20 years.

due to Miles Minson and the US Ski Team Development program, but in Bauer's and Weaver's case not at all. These are two skiers that were kicked off the team, forgotten and left to themselves to figure things out about three years ago. I guess they did! I have told Luke Bodensteiner, The Nordic Program Director that there are many talents in these generations of forgotten, supposedly not talented, skiers that could do well in World Cup skiing. I hope this was a good wake-up call for Luke.

Any Cheaters Out there?
When you hear the official Olympic "politicians" talk about possible cheaters in winter endurance sports they are talking about the "dirty less than one percent" group. When you privately talk to doctors and coaches at the venue you hear about a very different number - much higher. They are not saying that they think cheaters are beating their skiers, they do say things like, "We wondered if [so and so nation] would "peak" for the games. The suspects are those athletes that do not show anything in December or January, but have an incredible peak exactly at the right time. This is exactly what the Finns used to do and they were finally caught. Look through World cup results yourself and see if you can find any winners or medallists that have not placed high this season season. They are there. Do I think Beckie (and other North Americans) would place higher with better testing of all athletes and a real desire to catch cheaters? You bet I do!

5000 Gold Medals!?

Stephania Belmondo stops by the Solda wax trailer the day after her 15K victory. Posing with Belmondo is Solda wax technician Arve Minde.

On of our readers emailed me with questions about what waxes was used by other competitors, what was used and how it was applied. My response was that no wax company is sharing information and no team is telling during the games what they waxed with or how it was applied. We realize that there are numerous claims out there and these claims will be repeated in details at wax clinics this season and next year. We agree that it is hard to distinguish truth from marketing. If you add up all the claims, it seems the the Olympics must have awarded 5000 gold medals or so. As a wax company, you never know what was put on as the top layer in someone's wax room unless you were there. In [Solda's] case, all we can tell for sure is that more than 45 different teams have bought wax from us and the quantity bought is sufficient to wax up more than 1000 pair of skis and the demand is steady. We also take it as a good sign when a Gold Medal winner takes the time to stop by and say hi. And when you get a unsolicited hand shake from a wax coach that just had skiers with good results you feel that they are telling you something.