Q&A with Dahria Beatty, AU Student and Canadian Women’s National Ski Team Member

My name is Dahria Beatty. I was born and raised in Whitehorse, Yukon. I started cross country skiing as a small child. My parents put me in the jackrabbits program when I was 3 years old.

When I was young, I did lots of different sports such as running, basketball, soccer, skiing, orienteering, and others. Growing up in the Yukon gave me the opportunity to participate in national level events across Canada and the north in multiple sports. I competed at national championships in four sports: Canada Summer Games, Canada Winter Games, Arctic Winter Games, and Western Canada Summer Games.

By 14, I was national champion in my age class in two different sports, orienteering, and cross country skiing. At this point I knew skiing was something I was truly passionate about. The following year I qualified to represent Canada internationally at the World Junior Championships. Following the championships, I made the decision to focus my athletic drive on skiing first and foremost.

I enrolled in my first AU course in the fall of 2012. About a year later after taking a few general courses, I decided to pursue a degree in business and enrolled in a Bachelor of Commerce. My choice to pursue business was a combination of interest, practicality by choosing a degree that leaves many career paths open.

In high school, I was very fortunate to have teachers and staff that were supportive and understanding of my athletic goals and the travel that came with them. The older I got, the more time I was away from the Yukon competing. In my senior year I missed a month and a half of school in the second semester and ended up working through my chemistry class almost entirely independently with guidance from my teacher.

I have always been interested in going to university. In high school I was set on becoming a civil engineer and applied to schools in both Canada and the United States out of high school. When I made the decision to move to Canmore after graduation, I knew that engineering would not be possible through correspondence or online education, so I looked at other options.

I originally heard about Athabasca through my high school education fair. When I moved to Canmore many of my new teammates were already students with Athabasca making it an easy choice. The flexibility seemed like a perfect fit for combining sport and school.

I really enjoy that AU allows you to take course all year round and pick start dates and exam dates that work best for you training and competition schedule. Being able to choose course without exams when racing overseas and course with exams during the training season make it easier to work towards a degree than the conventional school schedule.

As an athlete I approach each new season with a plan on how to improve areas of weakness and create a time-frame so that I can reach my goals in time for the season start.

With school I try to do the same. Decide how much time I want each particular course to take and create a plan so I can execute the course in the time-frame I have created for myself.

So much of my day is devoted to sport that having another goal to pursue brings balance to my life. Being solely focused on one thing is very difficult especially on the hard days or on a week where training doesn’t go exactly as planned. Working toward a completely different goal (university degree) gives balance and keeps my life more rounded.

I have studied in many beautiful European mountain towns while away racing. However, the most beautiful place I have ever studied was actually in high school in an experiential science program I took in Grade 9. Our class hiked to the base of a glacier in coastal Alaska and we had our science class sitting on the rocks looking up at a glacier, the topic we were learning about in our textbook.

I plan to race internationally for Canada for at least the next four years with the major goal to be to compete for Canada once again at the Winter Olympics in Beijing in 2022.

I hope to finish my Bachelor of Commerce with AU by the time I retire from competitive skiing. Depending on how long I continue skiing, I might be motivated to keep going a while if Calgary gets a 2026 Olympic bid, I hope to either pursue an MBA or possibly go back and get an engineering degree.