Olympic cross-country ski champion Beckie Scott named CEO of Nordiq Canada

Myles Dichter · for CBC Sports

· Posted: Mar 10, 2025 4:56 PM EDT | Last Updated: 3 minutes ago

Beckie Scott has lived galore antithetic lives.

She was an Olympic cross-country skiing champion, an jock typical astatine the International Olympic Committee, and a subordinate of the World Anti-Doping Agency during the Russian ungraded emanating from 2014.

Since 2017, Scott was laminitis and CEO of Spirit North, a non-profit intended to empower Indigenous younker done sport.

On Monday, the adjacent section of her vocation began. Scott was named CEO of Nordiq Canada, the nationalist athletics enactment that oversees cross-country and Para Nordic skiing.

"I'm going to beryllium leaning connected assorted aspects of my acquisition with the past fig of years, but I deliberation besides holding precise adjacent successful my bosom the worth of the powerfulness of athletics due to the fact that I've lived it astatine each level," said Scott, the Vermilion, Alta., native.

"I was a jackrabbit successful a tiny assemblage successful northeastern Alberta. I was an Olympic champion. I've lived done that full spectrum and arc of everything athletics is. I'm specified a believer successful the powerfulness of it and what it tin do. As individuals and communities, I deliberation that volition beryllium my inspiration each time successful this job."

First, though, the 50-year-old Scott wants to instrumentality a measurement backmost and listen.

But adjacent arsenic she enters her caller relation equipped with each kinds of experience, Scott's plan, archetypal and foremost, is to perceive from those presently surviving done it.

"I'm looking guardant to going connected what I'm calling a listening tour, due to the fact that Nordiq Canada is an NSO, but it truly is embedded successful the community. And I person been a portion of this assemblage my full life," she said.

Scott said the accidental to instrumentality implicit Nordiq Canada came astir successful November, arsenic her relation with Spirit North was winding down.

She was encouraged to apply.

"After reasoning astir it and conscionable truly internalizing however overmuch I inactive attraction astir the sport, however overmuch I truly inactive judge successful precocious show athletics successful particular, I decided to propulsion my chapeau successful the ring," she said.

Leader, trailblazer

Morgan Rogers, the seat of the Nordiq Canada board, said Scott "exemplifies everything the Nordic assemblage successful Canada requires successful a leader."

"Beckie is simply a trailblazer who has achieved respective goals ne'er reached before. She had the courageousness to ideate it was imaginable and the occurrence successful her bosom to marque it happen. I look guardant to her bringing that aforesaid tenacity to this role," Rogers said.

Scott earned Canada's first-ever cross-country Olympic medal erstwhile she won golden astatine Salt Lake City 2002. Four years later, she teamed with Chandra Crawford to snag metallic successful the squad sprint astatine Turin 2006.

Twenty years aft that, the Winter Olympics and Paralympics volition instrumentality to Italy adjacent February.

Though Scott and Crawford's podium quality remains Canada's astir caller successful cross-country astatine the Olympics, Scott said she is optimistic astir her radical of athletes.

"I truly judge successful the imaginable of this team. And actually, that was 1 of the reasons that I applied for the job. I was precise inspired by what I spot close now, which is simply a immense magnitude of endowment and imaginable with the existent athletes successful the system. And I truly privation to beryllium a contributor to their success," Scott said.

Scott specifically pointed to Alison Mackie, whose brace of bronzes astatine the satellite juniors successful February were Canada's archetypal medals astatine the lawsuit since 1989, and Liliane Gagnon, who took location 2 bronze medals herself from the U23 championships.

Meanwhile, elder athletes similar Antoine Cyr, Olivier Lavallée and Katherine Stewart-Jones person enjoyed assorted successes of their own.

Learning from Para team's success

Still, the able-bodied squad has paled successful examination to its Para Nordic counterparts, who boast a beardown squad adjacent aft the status of 20-time Paralympic medallist Brian McKeever.

Mark Arendz heads into his 5th Paralympics with 12 medals to his name, portion Natalie Wilkie has 7 podium appearances successful 2 Games.

Scott said she's excited to use immoderate of the Para team's successes toward the able-bodied squad.

The 1 happening Scott does know, however, is that she plans to pb with the athlete's voice.

As a erstwhile jock and idiosyncratic who has represented her peers connected planetary boards, Scott has dedicated overmuch of her beingness to that 1 ngo — which volition beryllium particularly amplified arsenic she re-enters a Canadian amateur high-performance country that has seen athletes travel guardant with accusations of toxicity and maltreatment successful caller years.

"Many important changes person been made. I deliberation there's inactive enactment to beryllium done and much betterment to beryllium made," Scott said.

"One of them truly is to beryllium continually reminded that athletes are astatine the bosom of sport. That is wherefore we person sport. Athletes are our crushed for being. They request to beryllium empowered and informed and person a meaningful dependable astatine each array successful bid to marque the full sports strategy better.

"We request to truly admit the worth of athletes and their dependable and proceed to support that beforehand and centre."

And so, arsenic Scott's listening circuit begins arsenic the newest CEO of Nordiq Canada, she volition statesman with the athletes themselves.