Kikkan Randall
| Kikkan Randall | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Full name | Kikkan Randall |
| Born |
31 December 1982 Salt Lake City, Utah, USA |
| Height | 5 ft 5 in (165 cm) |
| Ski club | Alaska Pacific University Nordic Ski Center |
| World Cup career | |
| Seasons | 2001– |
| Individual wins | 13 |
| Indiv. podiums | 28 |
| Overall titles | 3, in Sprint (2011–12, 2012–13, 2013–14) |
Kikkan Randall (born December 31, 1982) is an American cross-country skier. She is the niece of former cross-country skiing Olympians Betsy Haines (1980) and Chris Haines (1976). She was the first American female cross-country skier to take a top ten finish in World Cup 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 in Liberec, becoming the first American woman to win a medal in cross country skiing at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships and in 2013 teamed up with Jessica Diggins to win the first ever American FIS Nordic World Ski Championships gold medal in the team sprint.
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, the first American to win a race on the Alpine Skiing World Cup, whilst her mother wanted to name her Meghan. Ronn started teaching Kikkan to ski one day after her first birthday.
Randall lived in Salt Lake while her mother attended law school at the University of Utah. In the mid-1980s, she moved to Anchorage, Alaska with her parents, where her younger siblings, Tanner and Kalli were born. Randall won 10 state titles at East Anchorage High School — seven in track and three in cross-country running. Randall has taken classes at Alaska Pacific University.
Fast at a young age, she ran a 6:06 minute mile in sixth grade at Scenic Park Elementary. After graduating from high school, she moved to Utah to train with the United States Ski Team, but returned to Alaska due to homesickness. Randall made her Olympic debut as a 19-year-old at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City 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. Randall's sixth-place finish in the sprint at the 2001 Junior World Championships was the best ever result by an American woman.
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