Three years ago, Dahria Beatty was the smoking fast rookie on Canada’s national cross-country ski team. She skied in awe alongside Olympians while training at the Canmore Nordic Centre, chasing older athletes while aspiring to reach their level one day.
Following the retirements of Perianne Jones, Alysson Marshall, Brittany Webster and the departure of Heidi Widmer to Switzerland,
Beatty, 21, is now the veteren skier others are chasing.
Beatty led many of the women’s team workouts at Cross-Country Canada’s Canmore training camp, as the national team hunts for its next top female ski racers.
Beatty and Emily Nishikawa led the charge last season, and several others are keen to follow their path. Anne-Marie Comeau, Cendrine Browne, Frederique Vezina, Olivia Bouffard-Nesbitt, Jenn Jackson and Katherine Stewart-Jones are among the contenders for upcoming spots on the world cup team.
“It’s definitely different. I’m definitely missing the older girls, but at the same time, it’s a new generation. I feel very much one amongst them,” Beatty said. “It’s nice to have quite a few peers at my level, from Emily (Nishikawa) to Anne-Marie (Comeau), who was born in 1997.”
Cross-Country Canada added more women’s spots to its junior development team this year, as it recognized the need to give the program a boost. The two-week training camp included 18 women from across Canada, all showing a good level of skill for such a young group.
“It’s amazing to have so many young girls here who are learning the ropes as I have been for the past three years. They’re all super fast and great training partners. It’s fun to have them as peers and mentor them a bit,” Beatty said.
Nishikawa is the only woman named to Canada’s national ‘B’ team this year, however, she, Beatty and others will have a chance to earn more world cup starts this season, especially at the Tour de Canada, which will stop for three days in Canmore and Lake Louise.
“You’re always worried there would be a hole, but there is quite a strong group coming up. I’m hoping the next generation will start and we can make a good transition to the world cup with the Tour de Canada and keep it going,” Beatty said.
Stewart-Jones is one of the skiers chasing a world cup start. The younger sister of Alberta World Cup Academy sprint specialist Patrick Stewart-Jones, she is a member of the junior national team who now trains with the Thunder Bay National Training Centre.
“It’s really great to have so many girls out. To join with the best girls in the country is a great opportunity, and to have workouts in places I don’t usually train is new and exciting,” Stewart-Jones said.
Equally proficient in distance and sprint races, Stewart-Jones is pursuing a spot on B team tours for fall, as she believes the retirements are tough, but also an opportunity.
“Recently, women have retired, like Perianne Jones, who we have looked up to for a long time. But it’s great to have a new generation of girls. We’re all pretty quick and close to the same age,” Stewart-Jones said.
“I hope to do the Tour de Canada, and I hope a B tour – I haven’t done that yet. A lot of the girls have had a chance to race more internationally. They can help me with that.”
