Cross-country skiing is one of those sports that Canadians have felt guilty about for a long time: As in, why aren't we a lot better at it?
In a land with plenty of snow and plenty of flat, we were, appropriately enough, lost in the wilderness.
And then along came Beckie.
She looked more like a waif you'd want to take home and fill up with a big home-cooked meal than an athlete, but Beckie Scott overcame our pre-conceptions and became an unlikely star on the World Cup circuit.
It was a slow climb. She finished 45th in her first Olympics in Nagano.
Geez. We always seemed to be 42nd or 56th or 63rd in those days in the real winter events, like Nordic skiing which was dominated by the Europeans and Scandinavians.
Of course, we'd have a chance to medal in the side-by-side snowboard whirlybird event that was the newest entry in the Games. There's a reason those medals feel tawdry and slightly diminished. Because they are.
Cross-country skiing is a legitimate winter sport. You can tell by the number of people collapsing and/or throwing up at the finish line.
Beckie Scott wouldn't go away and she brought a discipline to her pursuit of excellence that inspired the whole Canadian Nordic program.
She not only refused to join the cheaters who used drugs to enhance their chances of victory, but she called them out.
Scott became the first woman from North America to win an Olympic cross-country medal in Salt Lake City. She knew that she had been cheated of gold by the two skiers in front of her and she said so, and took considerable heat for it at the time.
She persisted and was proven right when she got the gold some two years later. Life isn't fair and Scott was denied the chance to stand on the top of the podium and hear her anthem played while the world watched.
This year, Scott was dominant in World Cup (10 medals) and was a frustratingly-close second in the overall World Cup standings, the truest measure of the best in the world.
It's often said that sport is about character-building, but too rarely does it hold true.
Scott's case is a refreshing exception.
We were privileged in this country to watch her grow from a strapling of a girl into a powerhouse of a woman, unwilling to accept anything less than the best from herself. She insisted on a fair playing field for every athlete and, by the power of her personal will, she helped clean up not just her sport but all of the Olympics.
She has earned her retirement, and she deserves our heartfelt thanks.