Nordic Roundup: Beckie Scott in until '06; Yanks in Scandinavia; Bjorndaelin double dips

Nordic Roundup: Beckie Scott in until ’06; Yanks in Scandinavia; Bjorndaelin double dipsOlympic X-C champ Beckie Scott returns

Canadian Beckie Scott took the summer off after collecting her long-delayed gold medal for winning the pursuit event at the 2002 Olympics at Soldier Hollow, Utah. The break revived her spirit and her outlook, and she’s decided to keep racing through the 2006 Winter Games in Torino.

“I’m in,” she told Ski Racing before heading at week’s end a Canadian team training camp at Silver Star, B.C. (click here for webcam). “I was pretty sure I was done this spring; I was almost 90 percent sure I’d call it a career but I didn’t want to make any hard announcements.” Scott, who turned 30 in August, is married to three-time U.S. Olympian Justin Wadsworth, who retired after the 2003 season; they have a home in Bend, Oregon, and have just completed a home at Panorama resort in British Columbia.

Scott kicked back during the summer, totally skipping any training regimen. “Justin trains because he likes it, but I didn’t. For the first time, I wasn’t training. I wanted to be able to wake up in the morning and not have to train. I needed that break – more mentally than physically,” she said. She took things easy, did some promotional work for Haywood Securities, which not only sponsors the Canadian team but Scott individually, and got caught up with teammate Milaine Theriault, who returned to racing last winter after having a baby son following the 2003 season.

Snow drought threatens X-C opener in Oestersund

The cross-country World Cup season is scheduled to open November 20-21 in Oestersund, Sweden, but organizers will have to step-up the pace of their snow dances, according to an Associated Press story with a Stockholm dateline. Ditto for Kuusamo, Finland, where the nordic combined and jumping seasons get underway along with cross-country races November 26-28. “They could use some winter some cold weather. There’s not much snow in Oestersund…or Kuusamo,” U.S. Nordic Director Luke Bodensteiner said.

While the sprinters stayed home and prepped for the start of the SuperTour Nov. 27-28 in West Yellowstone, Montana, U.S. cross-country World Cup skiers headed to Muonio, Finland, for a final preseason training mini-camp, and Canadians Sara Renner and George Grey left this week for Oestersund. U.S. nordic combined World Cup skiers are in Lillehammer and will cross-country ski locally or in Beitostolen (Click here for webcam) while waiting for the jumps to open. Or, coach Bard Elden said, they might go to Trondheim if the weather doesn’t cooperate. U.S. jumpers Clint Jones and Alan Alborn are training in Park City, doing strength training before heading to Europe

“Oestersund could have a problem,” Bodensteiner said. “They’ve got 10 days to get the tracks ready and it sounds like it will be close. They have some obvious problems.”

Germany’s Axel Teichmann and Tobias Angerer went one-two in both races during the weekend in Muonio, according to English-speaking Norwegian website ; Kris Freeman was 18th Saturday in the 15-kilometer classic race with Carl Swenson top American Sunday in a 10km skate race. Natalia Baranova-Masolkina, the Russian who shipped home before the 2002 Olympics because of a doping violation and suspended for two years, won Saturday’s women’s 10km race while Claudia Kuenzel of Germany was Sunday’s 5km winner.

Bjoerndalen eyes possible double-duty schedule

Norwegian biathlon star Ole Einar Bjoerndalen, who left Soldier Hollow with four Olympic gold medals in 2002, says he’s considering double-dipping again this winter. He told the Norwegian daily VG he may jump from biathlon to the cross-country World Cup tour for some races. Bjoerndalen, 30, jarred many when he tried a couple of cross-country races early in the ’02 season — and finished second twice! He also was fifth in the Olympic cross-country 30km freestyle race. (That was the first race Johann Muehlegg, the German who skied for Spain, “won” but later was disqualified for allegedly using a banned substance.) Since biathletes only skate, he has raced only in free technique cross-country races. He was 13th in a 15km race early last season, 18th in a 10km race to open Winter ’03 but that was it.

According to a translation on www.fasterskier.com, Bjoerndalen and his new wife, Italian Nathalie Santer, are living and training in Obtertilliach, Austria, on the Italian border, over the ridgeline from Sappada. Santer plans to retire after the 2006 Olympics in her homeland but Boerndalen wants to continue until the Vancouver Winter Games in 2010. “Ski racing is so much fun, I can’t imagine stopping any time soon,” he said.