©Canadian Olympic Committee Photo Archives

November 9, 2004 – Beckie Scott has declared she will lead the Canadian
Cross-Country Ski Team to the 2006 Olympic Winter Games in Torino, Italy,
the governing body for cross-country skiing announced on Monday.

With a focus on competing at the 2005 World Championships in Obertsdorf,
Germany, Scott will ski a reduced schedule on the 2004-05 World Cup
circuit. The Olympic gold medallist will remain training full-time at home,
and participate in a series of North American events before joining her
teammates on the World Cup circuit in January.

“It has been an incredibly busy year for me, and I needed some time at home
in a normal environment to find my desire and motivation again to win,”
said Scott, who will join the team and compete at the season-opening
Haywood Canada Cup event at Sovereign Lake, B.C., November 25-28. “I am
extremely excited for the next couple of years. We have one of the most
talented groups of athletes on our team that I have seen since I joined the
national program. Moreover, our team is going to be able to compete in
World Cup events at home in 2005, in Canmore and Vernon, where major course
upgrading projects are already taking place.”

While the Vermilion, Alta. native will remain at home for the first part of
the season, her long-standing Canadian comrade on the World Cup circuit,
Sara Renner of Canmore, Alta., will head to Europe for the season-opening
World Cup in Ostersund, Sweden, November 20-21. The 28-year-old Olympian is
gunning for her first World Cup podium this year after capturing four top-8
finishes on the 2004 campaign.

Renner will be heading to Europe with 25-year-old George Grey, the leader
of a talented quartet of men’s skiers keen to burst the maple leaf back
onto the men’s World Cup cross-country ski scene. Grey, who competed on the
World Cup full time after the holiday season last year, will experience his
first full season at the elite level this winter.

“Spending the final three months on the World Cup season last year was an
eye opening experience, and a whole new level of competition,” said Grey,
who is from Rossland, B.C. “Competing full time against the world’s best,
and feeding off the knowledge and international experience of Sara, will be
another major step forward in preparing myself for my first Olympic
experience in 2006. I am determined to learn and improve each time I step
on the snow, and to being mentally and physically focused on winning.”

Grey, and teammate, Chris Jeffries, 26, of Chelsea, Que, charged to a
ninth-place finish in a World Cup team sprint last season. The senior men’s
team also includes Drew Goldsack, 22, of Red Deer, Alta., a gold medallist
in the sprint event at the Under-23 World Championships last season; and
Devon Kershaw, 21, of Sudbury, Ont., who was a double gold medallist at the
2004 Canadian Championships.