ROB MURRAY: I’m speaking with local cross-country Olympian Dahria Beatty. First of all, I want to say congratulations for qualifying to race in Beijing. I understand there were some nail biting moments in some of the final qualifying races to make sure you got that spot.

DAHRIA BEATTY: Thank you so much. Yeah, it was definitely a rollercoaster of emotions over the selection weekend in Canmore. I wasn’t able to get myself pre-qualified on the World Cups before Christmas as I did for Pyeongchang in 2018, so I had to perform in Canmore last weekend at the trials. That’s always a little more nerve-wracking, when it’s a one event kind of thing. I was really happy to be able to secure my spot in the 10 kilometre classic race on Saturday after having a disappointing sprint the first day of qualifications.

RM: Well, you made it! You’re going to Beijing. This will be your second Olympics. Do you feel like you’re going to be able to parlay some of that experience from Korea into these games?

DB: I sure hope so, Rob. I definitely think having experienced a games atmosphere, although each games is always very different, will give me a lot of insight into how the athletes village functions and all those little things that I’ll have to spend less energy and time learning and worrying about. Hopefully I can focus more on the racing itself and I hope to improve on my results from the last Olympics.

RM: If I had qualified for the Olympics right now, I probably would be walking around everywhere wearing a hazmat suit. “Don’t touch me! I can’t get sick right now!” Is COVID in the back of your mind right now?

DB: Oh, it’s in the forefront of my mind for sure. I am pretty much in a bubble with myself right now. It’s very relaxing on the mind to know that I don’t really have to interact with anyone until I leave for the games. The team has done a great job facilitating a good training environment where all the athletes are isolated from society right now, leading into the games. That’s definitely a big relief on the stress, just being able to train and prep well, without having to really worry about that too much.

RM: I’d imagine that COVID overall over the last couple of years has really impacted your ability to train and race. Have you been able to find ways around that to get into the shape you want to be in?

DB: Luckily, for training, it hasn’t impacted our sport too much too much, because the majority of our training is outside as cross-country skiers. Through the different waves of the pandemic we’ve been able to maintain a pretty consistent training base and ability to train at a high level. The main thing that was impacted was our ability to use a weight room, so we’ve definitely had to get a little creative there. I had quite an interesting at-home gym system going on for a while. The biggest thing was not necessarily having the team group training atmosphere in quite the same way. There definitely was a lot of impact on racing. Races were canceled last minute, our decided not to go to some events, constant shifting and changing. We haven’t had a normal race calendar in the last two years, so that’s been difficult. You’re not totally sure what you’re staying motivated for, so having these games in the back of my mind coming up was definitely a big incentive when I was training, knowing that they would happen.

RM: Are you feeling pretty good heading into these games, physically, mentally?

DB: Yeah. I’m really excited for the games. Now that I’ve qualified I feel like I can get excited about training, have that stress of qualifying off, and just try to perform to the best of my ability. The venue in China is at around 1600 metres of elevation. I’m the type of person who prefers racing at higher altitudes versus sea level, so I’m excited about that. It’s something that suits me well, and I’m really looking forward to hopefully being able to use that to my advantage.

RM: The venue that they’ve created in Beijing, this is like a brand new Nordic venue that has never really been skied before. Is that correct?

DB: That is correct. I believe they hosted races on it a couple of weeks ago, just local ones in China. We were supposed to go and race at the venue last March but that was one of the things that was cancelled. It’s quite different because not a single athlete who will be racing there has competed at that venue before, which is pretty rare.

RM: You’re one of two members of the national cross-country team going to Beijing that is actually competed in the games before. Everyone else is all new to the Olympics. Will you be assuming a bit of a leadership role on the team?

DB: Yeah, definitely. I’ll try to share as many experiences and as much information as possible with my teammates. Going to a games for the first time is a big and overwhelming experience that I’ve been through before, so I hope that I can contribute to everyone’s experience being a little bit easier and take on more of a leadership role. Over the last four years I’ve definitely transitioned within our team from being one of the young ones to being one of the oldest and most experienced racers on the team, so I’ve kind of taken on that role even on the World Cup over the last couple of years. I hope to continue that.

Filed under: Canmore, Cross-Country Skiing, Olympics