Career
Scott was born in Vegreville, Alberta, but grew up in Vermilion, Alberta. She began cross-country skiing at the age of five. She entered her first competition at age seven, and attended the Junior National Championships in 1988. She went on to win seventeen World Cup medals in sprint, individual, and relay cross-country skiing events.
Scott is a three-time Olympian, participating at the 1998 Winter Olympic Games in Nagano, Japan, the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, Utah, and the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Turin, Italy. Her best placed finish in Nagano was 45th, but Scott won a gold medal in cross-country skiing at the Salt Lake City games. She originally finished third in the five-kilometre pursuit, but she was upgraded to the gold medal when winner Olga Danilova and runner-up Larissa Lazutina were eventually disqualified for using darbepoetin, a performance-enhancing drug. Scott was awarded a silver medal before receiving her gold medal in June 2004, almost 2 and a half years after the olympics ended. She became the first Canadian and first North American woman to win an Olympic medal in cross-country skiing.
Scott has been honoured with a variety of awards in Canada, and has been inducted into the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame.
She currently resides in Canmore, Alberta and is a student of English through distance programs from Athabasca University.
She is also known for her work on behalf of UNICEF and Right to Play.
On March 29, 2005, Scott agreed to join the World Anti-Doping Agency's athlete committee.
On February 23, 2006, Scott was elected as an athlete member of the International Olympic Committee along with Finnish ice hockey player Saku Koivu. Scott retired on April 12, 2006, as the most decorated Canadian cross-country skier.
On May 17, 2006 The Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC) for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games announced the appointment of Scott to its board of directors.
On April 5, 2007 Scott announced that she and her husband were expecting their first child in September 2007. Teo (Tay-o)Jacob Wadsworth was born on September 16.
Beckie gave birth to a baby girl Brynn Jasmin Wadsworth on March 31, 2010.
Read more about this topic: Beckie Scott
Famous quotes containing the word career:
“He was at a starting point which makes many a man’s career a fine subject for betting, if there were any gentlemen given to that amusement who could appreciate the complicated probabilities of an arduous purpose, with all the possible thwartings and furtherings of circumstance, all the niceties of inward balance, by which a man swings and makes his point or else is carried headlong.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)
“I doubt that I would have taken so many leaps in my own writing or been as clear about my feminist and political commitments if I had not been anointed as early as I was. Some major form of recognition seems to have to mark a woman’s career for her to be able to go out on a limb without having her credentials questioned.”
—Ruth Behar (b. 1956)
“My ambition in life: to become successful enough to resume my career as a neurasthenic.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)