Kikkan Randall (born December 31, 1982) is an American, Olympic champion
cross-country skier. She has won 17 U.S. National titles, made 29 podiums on the World Cup, made five trips to the
Winter Olympic Games
The Winter Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'hiver) is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were he ...
and had the highest finish by an individual American woman at the World Championships, second in the Sprint in Liberec in 2009. She was the first American female cross-country skier to take a top ten finish in
World Cup
A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...
competition, to win a World Cup race and to win a World Cup discipline title. She won the silver medal in the individual sprint at the
FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2009
The FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2009 ( cs, Mistrovství světa v klasickém lyžování Liberec 2009) took place 18 February – 1 March 2009 in Liberec, Czech Republic. This was the fourth time these championships were hosted either i ...
in
Liberec, becoming the first American woman to win a medal in cross country skiing at the
FIS Nordic World Ski Championships
The FIS Nordic World Ski Championships is a biennial nordic skiing event organized by the International Ski Federation (FIS). The World Championships was started in 1925 for men and opened for women's participation in 1954. World Championship e ...
, and in 2013 teamed up with
Jessie Diggins
Jessica Diggins (born August 26, 1991) is an American cross-country skier. She and teammate Kikkan Randall won the United States' first ever cross-country skiing gold medal at the Winter Olympics in the team sprint in 2018. At the 2022 Winter O ...
to win the first ever American FIS Nordic World Ski Championships gold medal in the team sprint. She and Diggins won the United States' first ever cross-country skiing gold medal at the
Winter Olympics
The Winter Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'hiver) is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were h ...
in
women's team sprint at
Pyeongchang in 2018.
Early years
Randall's parents, Ronn and Deborah (née Haines) originally met at a California ski resort. Kikkan's name was the result of a compromise between her parents: her father wanted to name her Kikki, after
Kiki Cutter
Christina "Kiki" Cutter (born July 24, 1949) is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from the United States. She was the first American to win a World Cup event, a slalom race in Oslo, Norway, on February 25, 1968.
Although Cutter competed on the ...
, the first American to win a race on the
Alpine Skiing World Cup
The FIS Alpine Ski World Cup is the top international circuit of alpine skiing competitions, launched in 1966 by a group of ski racing friends and experts which included French journalist Serge Lang and the alpine ski team directors from France ( ...
, whilst her mother wanted to name her Meghan. Ronn started teaching Kikkan to ski one day after her first birthday.
She is the niece of former cross-country skiing Olympians
Betsy Haines
Betsy Haines (born November 5, 1960) is an American cross-country skier. She competed in the women's 5 kilometres at the 1980 Winter Olympics. Haines is a University of Vermont
The University of Vermont (UVM), officially the University of ...
(1980) and Chris Haines (1976).
Randall lived in Salt Lake while her mother attended law school at the
University of Utah
The University of Utah (U of U, UofU, or simply The U) is a public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is the flagship institution of the Utah System of Higher Education. The university was established in 1850 as the University of De ...
. In the mid-1980s, she moved to Anchorage, Alaska with her parents, where her younger siblings, Tanner and Kalli were born. Originally she had ambitions to race as an alpine skier, as well as to run for an
NCAA Division I
NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest level of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athletic ...
college.
She ran a 6:06 minute mile in sixth grade at Scenic Park Elementary, but Kikkan's goal was to run a five-minute mile by high school. Kikkan Randell wanted to attend East High school because she wanted to wear red and blue just like her mom and aunt and that lead to Randall winning 10 state titles at
East Anchorage High School
East Anchorage High School (EAHS) is a public high school which serves grades 9–12 in Anchorage, Alaska, United States. It is part of the Anchorage School District. The current principal is Ron Brown. East's mascot is the Thunderbird, and the ...
— seven in track and three in cross-country running. She was announced the fastest girl on skies and she is the last Alaskan state speed-skiing champion. Randall took up cross-country skiing in 1998, when her track coach suggested using it as a means of keeping fit during the winter.
Skiing career
Early career
After completing High School in Anchorage, Alaska at East High school, Kikkan Randall decided to stay in her home town, Anchorage to start her undergraduate studies and train with Alaska Pacific University Nordic Ski Center to start her new beginning. Her sixth-place finish in the sprint at the 2001 Junior World Championships was the best ever result by an American woman. Randall made her Olympic debut as a 19-year-old at the
2002 Winter Olympics in
Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...
and finished 44th in the inaugural Olympic individual sprint. In January 2006, Randall returned to Soldier Hollow, Utah, the site of the 2002 Olympic cross-country competition, and won national titles in the 5-kilometer freestyle, the 10-km classical and the sprint. At the 2005 World Championships in Oberstdorf, Germany, she finished 30th in the individual sprint.
2006–2011
At the
2006 Winter Olympics, Randall finished ninth in the Olympic Sprint, the best ever Olympic result in cross-country skiing by an American woman. Shortly thereafter, she finished fifth in a World Cup sprint. On January 21, 2007, she captured bronze in the women's 1.2-kilometer sprint in Rybinsk, Russia, the best ever cross-country World Cup result by an American woman. Later that calendar year, in the
following season, she took the first World Cup win for an American female skier since the introduction of women's competition in 1978 in another 1.2 kilometre sprint at the same venue.
Kikkan won a silver medal in February 2009, at the Nordic Skiing World Championship for the 1.3 Kilometer sprint; she was the first American to take home a World Championship medal since Bill Koch's win in 1982.
In January 2010, Randall qualified for the
2010 Winter Olympics, where she earned a US best finish of sixth in the team sprint and her best individual finish of eighth in the individual sprint event. In the
2010-11 season, she finished third in the Sprint World Cup standings.
2011–2012
Randall became the first American woman to win a World Cup discipline title in cross-country by topping the season's Sprint standings. Her season included wins in the World Cup freestyle sprints in
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in th ...
and
Davos. She also finished fifth in the Overall World Cup
that season.
2012–2013
![Kikkan Randall B FIS Cross-Country World Cup 2012-2012 Quebec 02](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ab/Kikkan_Randall_B_FIS_Cross-Country_World_Cup_2012-2012_Quebec_02.jpg)
Randall won four World Cup freestyle sprint events, in
Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
,
Val Mustair
Val may refer to: Val-a
Film
* Val (film), ''Val'' (film), an American documentary about Val Kilmer, directed by Leo Scott and Ting Poo
Military equipment
* Aichi D3A, a Japanese World War II dive bomber codenamed "Val" by the Allies
* AS ...
,
Sochi
Sochi ( rus, Со́чи, p=ˈsotɕɪ, a=Ru-Сочи.ogg) is the largest resort city in Russia. The city is situated on the Sochi River, along the Black Sea in Southern Russia, with a population of 466,078 residents, up to 600,000 residents in ...
, and
Lahti
Lahti (; sv, Lahtis) is a city and municipality in Finland. It is the capital of the region of Päijänne Tavastia (Päijät-Häme) and its growing region is one of the main economic hubs of Finland. Lahti is situated on a bay at the southern e ...
. She also won the 3 km freestyle prologue of the
Tour de Ski
Tour or Tours may refer to:
Travel
* Tourism, travel for pleasure
* Tour of duty, a period of time spent in military service
* Campus tour, a journey through a college or university's campus
* Guided tour, a journey through a location, directed ...
in
Oberhof. She won a team freestyle sprint in Quebec with teammate
Jessie Diggins
Jessica Diggins (born August 26, 1991) is an American cross-country skier. She and teammate Kikkan Randall won the United States' first ever cross-country skiing gold medal at the Winter Olympics in the team sprint in 2018. At the 2022 Winter O ...
. Randall finished first in the final World Cup sprint standings and third in the overall standings. Third place is the highest ever by a U.S. woman. Randall, with Diggins, won the first-ever team sprint gold for U.S. women at the World Ski Championships.
2013–2014
Randall qualified for the U.S. Olympic team at Sochi, and went into the
2014 Winter Olympics as heavily favored to win the USA's first medal in cross-country skiing since
1976
Events January
* January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force.
* January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea.
* January 11 – The 1976 Phila ...
,
but missed qualifying to advance in the sprint quarterfinals by .05 of a second. Subsequently, she suggested that her focus on peaking for the Olympics was disrupted by a back injury which she sustained whilst training in
Davos in December 2013.
Randall topped the overall World Cup sprint standings for a third time. She won the World Cup freestyle sprint events in
Nove Mesto,
Szklarska Poreba, and
Lahti
Lahti (; sv, Lahtis) is a city and municipality in Finland. It is the capital of the region of Päijänne Tavastia (Päijät-Häme) and its growing region is one of the main economic hubs of Finland. Lahti is situated on a bay at the southern e ...
.
2014–2015
Randall placed third in the
Lahti
Lahti (; sv, Lahtis) is a city and municipality in Finland. It is the capital of the region of Päijänne Tavastia (Päijät-Häme) and its growing region is one of the main economic hubs of Finland. Lahti is situated on a bay at the southern e ...
freestyle sprint.
In October 2015 Randall announced that she was expecting her first child in April, and would take leave from competition in the
2015-16 season before returning in
2016-17 with a focus on the
2017 World Championships in Lahti and the
2018 Winter Olympics in
Pyeongchang.
2016–2017
Upon returning to competition, Randall did not advance beyond qualifying in the first two World Cup Sprint competitions of the season.
However, she made steady progress, and in January 2017 finished fifth in a World Cup Sprint in
Falun
Falun () is a city and the seat of Falun Municipality in Dalarna County, Sweden, with 37,291 inhabitants in 2010. It is also the capital of Dalarna County. Falun forms, together with Borlänge, a metropolitan area with just over 100,000 inhabitan ...
,
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...
. Subsequently, at the
2017 World Nordic Ski Championships in
Lahti
Lahti (; sv, Lahtis) is a city and municipality in Finland. It is the capital of the region of Päijänne Tavastia (Päijät-Häme) and its growing region is one of the main economic hubs of Finland. Lahti is situated on a bay at the southern e ...
,
Finland
Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...
, Randall took the bronze medal in the
freestyle sprint, catching
Hanna Falk in the last 100 metres to pip her for third place by 0.1 seconds, one place behind team-mate Diggins in second.
2017–2018
In December 2017 Randall took her first World Cup podium finish in almost three years when she finished third in a sprint in
Davos,
Switzerland
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
.
During the 2018 Winter Olympics, she and Jessie Diggins became the first American cross-country skiers to win a gold medal by winning the women's team sprint at the Alpensia Cross-Country Centre in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
Cross-country skiing results
All results are sourced from the
International Ski Federation (FIS).
Olympic Games
* 1 medal – (1 gold)
World Championships
* 3 medals – (1 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze)
World Cup
Season titles
* 3 titles – (3 sprint)
Season standings
Individual podiums
* 13 victories – (11 , 2 )
* 29 podiums – (22 , 7 )
Team podiums
* 1 victory – (1 )
* 5 podiums – (2 , 3 )
Other achievements
In 2009, Randall was elected to the
International Ski Federation's Athletes Commission, which she served on for eight years. Subsequently, in 2018 she was elected to the
International Olympic Committee
The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swiss ...
's Athletes Commission, succeeding American ice hockey player
Angela Ruggiero
Angela Marie Ruggiero (born January 3, 1980) is an American former ice hockey defenseman, gold medalist, and four-time Olympian. She was a member of the International Olympic Committee from 2010 to 2018 and served as a member of the Executive Bo ...
.
Randall defeated teammate
Holly Brooks
Holly Brooks (born April 17, 1982) is an American cross-country skier from Seattle, Washington who competed for Whitman College in 2001–04 and has competed recreationally since 2009. She has four victories in lesser events up to 10 km, a ...
to win the
Mount Marathon Race in 2011, following in the footsteps of her mother Debbie (who won the Race in 1975) and aunt Betsy (who won it three years in succession from 1979 to 1981).
Randall was inducted into the
Alaska Sports Hall of Fame in 2011.
Personal life
Randall was married to former Canadian ski racer Jeff Ellis. They divorced in October 2021.
The couple have a son, Breck, who was born in April 2016.
In April 2008 she was diagnosed with the genetic blood clotting disorder
Factor V Leiden
Factor V Leiden (rs6025 or ''F5'' p.R506Q) is a variant (mutated form) of human factor V (one of several substances that helps blood clot), which causes an increase in blood clotting (hypercoagulability). Due to this mutation, protein C, an anticoa ...
after being hospitalized twice due to blood clots in her left leg.
Randall mixes studies at
Alaska Pacific University with skiing for the APU Nordic Ski Center program run by former national-level ski racer, Erik Flora.
In April 2018, Randall was diagnosed with
breast cancer
Breast cancer is cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipple, a newly inverted nipple, or a r ...
. She announced her diagnosis in July of that year on her social media accounts, as well as her plans to return to Anchorage to undergo chemotherapy.
References
External links
*
*
USOC profileU.S. Ski Team Bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Randall, Kikkan
1982 births
Alaska Pacific University alumni
American female cross-country skiers
Cross-country skiers at the 2002 Winter Olympics
Cross-country skiers at the 2006 Winter Olympics
Cross-country skiers at the 2010 Winter Olympics
Cross-country skiers at the 2014 Winter Olympics
Cross-country skiers at the 2018 Winter Olympics
FIS Nordic World Ski Championships medalists in cross-country skiing
Living people
Medalists at the 2018 Winter Olympics
Olympic cross-country skiers of the United States
Olympic gold medalists for the United States in cross-country skiing
Olympic medalists in cross-country skiing
Tour de Ski skiers
Sportspeople from Anchorage, Alaska
Skiers from Salt Lake City
International Olympic Committee members
21st-century American women