Nordic Nation: Olympic Champ Kikkan Randall Elected to IOC Athletes’ Commission

Jason AlbertFebruary 23, 2018

FasterSkier would like to thank Fischer Sport USAMadshus USAConcept2Boulder Nordic Sport, and Swix Sport US for their generous support, which made this coverage possible.

PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — In this episode of Nordic Nation, FasterSkier sat down with U.S. cross-country skier, Kikkan Randall — known by some as Kikkanimal — to discuss her fifth and final Winter Olympics, as well as what lays ahead for the Anchorage, Alaska native. 

On Wednesday evening earlier this week, Randall and teammate Jessie Diggins paired up to take the win in the team sprint, earning the U.S. women their first Olympic cross-country medal in gold.

Kikkan Randall racing during her leg of the women’s team sprint on Wednesday at the at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad)

The day after her gold medal performance, Randall learned that she had been elected by her peers to serve on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Athletes’ Commission. Consider, she’s also a mom.

Randall will serve an eight-year term as one of 20 representatives on the IOC Athletes’ Commission. Her primary role will be to represent the athletes’ viewpoint within the decision making bodies of the IOC. Randall has served as a leader within Fast And Female. She has also worked as an athlete representative in the International Ski Federation (FIS).

News also broke on Friday that her gold-medal team-sprint teammate Jessie Diggins was selected to carry the American flag for Team USA at the Closing Ceremony on Sunday.

Kikkan Randall (l) and Jessie Diggins after being awarded their gold medals from the freestyle team sprint at Thursday night’s Olympic medal ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad)

We met up with Randall in the U.S. pop-up training room called ‘The Haven’. You may notice the recording has the ambient echo of a gym; a fitting setting for a conversation with an athlete as powerful as Randall. With her characteristic cotton-candy pink colored hair let down, Randall detailed to us her final Olympic moments and her future role with the IOC as an athlete rep.

(To subscribe to the Nordic Nation podcast channel, download the iTunes app. If you have iTunes, subscribe to Nordic Nation here.)

Jason Albert

Jason lives in Bend, Ore., and can often be seen chasing his two boys around town. He’s a self-proclaimed audio geek. That all started back in the early 1990s when he convinced a naive public radio editor he should report a story from Alaska’s, Ruth Gorge. Now, Jason’s common companion is his field-recording gear.

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