Released Signoffs the Women’S U.S
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the Released Signoffs The women’s U.S. cross-country ski team has always been second-tier, but that’s changing effect ____ Will thanks largely to Alaskan nordic star Kikkan Randall, a pink-haired skate-skiing power house ____ Story Editor who trains harder than anyone on the planet—and has everybody else following her lead. kik ____ Chris BY GORDY MEGROZ ____ Sean ____ Hannah ____ Amy photographs by jos´E mandojana Randall training near her home in Anchorage KAN86 Outside 03.17 adversity, and thousands of hours of work- pics. This fall, Norwegian star outs. Her determination showed up early. At Therese Johaug tested positive november in five she told her father, Ronn, a former parks for clostebol, a synthetic ste- and rec employee, and her mother, Deborah, roid, which she claims was in a lawyer, that she was going to the Olym- a doctor-prescribed lip cream pics—as an alpine ski racer. “I wanted to be she was using. (“I know her,” anchorageis bleak. The sun doesn’t come up until 34 times. In doing so, they’ve earned a place the next Picabo Street,” says Randall. says Randall. “I’ve seen her lips around nine, and it sets before you’ve had alongside the powerhouse Scandinavian “We didn’t doubt her,” says Deborah. and they’re always terrible. So your second cup of coffee. Today there’s teams to rank among the best in the world. “She’s tenacious. When she wants some- to me, it’s believable that it was black ice on the roads and a damp chill in the (Randall’s energy has rubbed off on the thing, she goes for it.” Her grit earned her a a mistake.”) air. Ashen fog covers the city’s front range, men, too, who’ve scored several top tens.) nickname: Kikkanimal. Randall, who is tested and the sky spits freezing rain. Matt Whitcomb, the head coach of the U.S. But Randall’s destiny was in cross- around ten times each year, None of this seems to bother Kikkan Ran- women’s nordic program, puts it succinctly: country skiing. Her mother’s brother and says she’s petrified of mak- dall, a cross-country ski racer who grew up “She essentially built this team.” sister had both been Olympians in the sport. ing a misstep like that. “I tri- here. The 34-year-old pulls into the parking Last year, before the season started, In 1999, at 15, she qualified for the Junior ple-check everything I take,” lot at Hilltop Ski Area—a small mountain Randall found out she was pregnant. She National Championships in McCall, Idaho. she says. And she contends on the city’s outskirts, with just one chair- took a break from racing and in She’d only started racing that nordic skiing’s testing lift—and hops out, smiling and cloaked in April gave birth to a boy named two years earlier but finished protocol and crackdown on fabric joy. Her vest, watch, and ski poles Breck. But as we glide over the Randall fourth in the 5K skate. “That’s cheaters has been effective. “I are all bright pink. Even her blond hair is icy cross-country trails, there’s when I thought I’d go to the think the sport is a lot cleaner streaked with the color. no sign that the time off cost is the Olympics as a cross-country than it was,” she says, noting “As a kid I hated pink,” she says. “But then her any speed. At five-foot- best cross- skier,” she says. that a more level playing field I thought, Man, people think cross-country five, 135 pounds, she’s com- Her epiphany happened at has been important to her skiing is boring. I want to show the fun side pact and powerful—a loaded country a perfect time. Skate sprint success. “I won’t go as far as to of the sport, and pink is fun.” spring of a woman—and she skier America races were about to debut in say it’s totally clean, but I be- There’s a reason Randall is so cheery: she’s gets massive thrust out of each the 2001 World Champion- lieve it’s pretty clean.” the best cross-country skier America has push from her legs and plant of has ever ships, and a new coach had As it happens, cheating has ever produced. Since 2007, she has reached her poles. produced. come to town. Jim Galanes, a been the least of Randall’s wor- the podium 28 times on the World Cup tour, A long tour through the Vermont native, had raced on ries. In March and April of 2008, winning 13 races. She has been particularly woods is only the start for today. Since 2007, the U.S. Ski Team in the late she suffered through three dominant in skate sprints—short, high- This afternoon she’ll go on a she has seventies and early eighties, health episodes brought on by intensity races that typically cover a kilo- two-hour run. Twice a week the last time it was any good. a blood clot in her leg. The clot meter and a half. she heads to the gym, where reached the He’d skied with Bill Koch, who was caused by a combination Randall might have a point about people’s she squats a remarkable 300 podium 28 won America’s only Olympic of two rare genetic disorders perceptions of cross-country skiing, but pounds and does sets of pull- times on the medal (a silver in 1976), and and her use of the NuvaRing skate-skiing is actually fun to watch, thanks ups with a 45-pound weight in three Olympics, where he Clockwise Matteson, one of her Randall embraces it. “When the conditions birth-control device. (Nuva Ring’s manu- from top left: to its roller-derby-like nature. Instead of the dangling from her waist, build- World Cup collected a couple of respect- Randall with coaches, as we looked on. aren’t perfect, when you have to fight for facturer, Organon, now owned by Merck, classic nordic technique—sliding one foot in ing sprinter-like quads and lats. tour, winning able eighth-place finishes. son Breck; “You have to in this sport, your balance and be mentally tough and just has since been accused of concealing health front of the other—athletes push their skis It’s a heavy training load, for His theory was that American training with but her resilience is ex- grind through it, that’s what helps the most,” risks associated with the device, including teammate side to side like ice skates while throwing sure, but Randall is motivated. 13 races. ski racing had lost its edge. Rosie Brennan ceptional.” she says. “And you know somebody else is the risk of blood clots.) The third time Randall elbows and jockeying for position over a long, In late February, she’ll race at “There were talented ath- on Turnagain Randall puts it another out there working just as hard if not harder.” was admitted to the hospital, she thought her winding course. Randall has won three overall the World Championships in letes but not enough focused Arm Trail; way: “It’s a game. When The training paid off. In 2000, when career was over. “The doctors didn’t know weight work at titles in this discipline. She has also nabbed Lahti, Finland. Next winter she’ll compete coaching,” Galanes says. Alaska Pacific you win, it’s the most Randall was 17, she was named to the U.S. why the clot had come back so quickly,” she silver in the individual sprint at the 2009 in Pyeongchang, South Korea, for an Olym- Randall joined Galanes’s Alaska Pacific University exhilarating feeling.” Ski Team. Two years later, she competed says. “They were afraid they’d need to put World Championships and, with teammate pic medal, the one piece of hardware that has University (APU) team when she was 16. in her first Olympics in Salt Lake City. By in a stent, which would have caused swell- Jessie Diggins, claimed the first nordic gold eluded her. (The team is attached to the college, but it’s THE OTHER KEY to Randall’s progression 2006, with new APU head coach Erik Flora ing that could have made it hard to walk, let ever won by an American squad, in the team “You want to run with me later?” she asks a club group that anybody can join.) Galanes was simple: more skiing. Sounds obvi- in place, she increased her training load even alone train.” Fortunately, Randall responded sprint at the 2013 World Championships. as we complete a lap. I decline. Cross-country put her through hell. Before, Randall’s train- ous, but it meant finding snow in summer. more. “By 35 percent,” says Flora. “That put to blood thinners and was able to start skiing Randall takes equal pride in her role as a skiing is brutally taxing—someone at Ran- ing had consisted of hourlong runs. Under That required flying to Eagle Glacier, about her on par with the Scandinavians.” In 2008, again a few weeks later. booster for American cross-country ski- dall’s level burns roughly 960 calories per Galanes, she was grinding out three-hour 20 minutes by ski plane from Anchor - Flora dialed things up again. In 2014, she entered the Olympics in Sochi ing. For nearly three decades, starting in the hour. She’s been taking it easy on me for runs, lifting weights consistently for the age, in the Chugach Mountains.