February 03, 2017  (Soldier Hollow, UT) – Dahria Beatty, from Whitehorse, Yukon, is a Canadian National Ski Team member based out of Canmore, Alberta, where she trains with the Alberta World Cup Academy. With two years of experience racing on the National Team, she’s starting to build her experience on the World Cup. Beatty has won multiple NorAm races, as well as Canadian National titles, and her best international result before this year was 15th at the Ski Tour Canada Classic Sprint in Canmore matching her previous-best result at the World Junior Championships in Val di Fiemme, Italy. This week at U23 World Championships at Soldier Hollow, Beatty raised the bar finishing 12th in the classic sprint competition on Jan. 30, and 16th in the 10km individual start FS on Feb. 1. She is without a doubt a rising star on Canada’s National Team. SkiTrax caught up with Dahria after her freestyle race on Feb. 1.

Dahria Beatty © flyingpointroad.com

What race are you most excited for here at Soldier Hollow?
Dahria Beatty: I was most excited about the sprint, I think the Skiathlon will also be a really hard but fun race to see how long I can hang onto the front.

How is it to race on home turf compared to traveling to Europe for these races?
DB: It is really nice not to have to deal with time change for this event! I have done a fair bit of racing over in Europe now so I am pretty used to the travel part but it was nice to have had the opportunity to ski these trails earlier this month at U.S Nationals.

Talk about the CL sprint, the course, competition and conditions – any surprises?
DB: I was happy with my qualifier, overall it felt pretty good, qualifying hasn’t been my strength in the past so I am really happy to see an overall improvement and consistency in my qualification speed this season.

How do you feel about your performance in the classic sprint?
DB: My quarterfinal went well but I had a stumble cresting the last hill and l lost contact with the top two women. My heat was really fast and I was able to recover from the stumble and move onto the semis as a Lucky Loser. Unfortunately I was quarter final 5 which meant less recovery time between heats and I was still pretty tired when my semi started. It was great to be in the semi finals and I learned a lot about tactics and where my weaknesses lie. I would have liked to have a bit more in me yesterday but I just didn’t have enough in the tank to contend for the final. Nevertheless, I am happy to have raced my first international semi final.

How’s the recovery going? Are you feeling good about the upcoming races?
DB: Today’s 10km was just as hard as I was at U.S Nationals. These courses at altitude are incredibly tough and I haven’t quite mastered the long climbs yet. My first lap I tried to ski a bit more conservative than usual so I wouldn’t die at the end of the race like I did at U.S Nationals. My first lap I was in the mix for top 10 but although I tried to not start too hard I still ended up blowing up on the big climbs on the last lap and lost a lot of time to the field ending up in 16th. It would have been nice to keep skiing in the top 10 but I fought right to the end and maybe I’ll figure out how to keep the legs alive for the entire race for the Skiathlon on Saturday. Let’s hope so!