What a Day - On Any Given Friday!
Beckie wins Bronze in the Women's Olympic Pursuit
By Torbjorn Karlsen

February 15, 2002

The Women's Pursuit was a dream come true. We had hoped and worked for a medal since last years World Cup at Soldier Hollow and it actually happened. Beckie used her incredible lactate tolerance to scratch and claw her way from 7th place at the 2.5 K mark in the skate portion to be in medal contention up the last killer hill with one K to go. Then she used her great sprint skills to take the medal with a fantastic sprint at the stadium.

It brought back memories from last years World Cup where I had the Canadian women's team watch my favorite inspirational speech before the race, Al Pacino's from the football movie Any Given Sunday. I then suggested that they replaced the words football with skiing and inches with centimeters and K's. The speech message is to fight for every inch and if you don't you will "die inside." It gives you the chills and it's hard not to get excited. I don't think Beckie remembered the movie today but she fought in a way that would have made coach Pacino proud. It made Canada and every ski fan out there proud. One of Norway's TV stations showed up and told her that the Norwegian people had voted her "The Olympian of the Day." A big statue was to be had delivered live on television by Vegard Ulvang or Bjorn Daehlie!

What did I do today to help Beckie get this result? Not much. When things go well, and the skier is not sick or tired, my job is to not interfere. Wax coach Yves Biledeau and his crew did an excellent job and so did Dave Wood administrating his crew. At the second hill (800 meter) I told Beckie to use her upper body more. At the 2K mark I said to not lose contact with her group. Going up the last hill, I yelled to attack. It was great. Vegard Ulvang interviewed me on Norwegian Television and asked, among other things, what the Norwegian women's team need to do to skate better. I did not want to open that can of worms - No comments to that one.