The Effect of Kikkan Randall On US Women’s Skiing

I’ve commented on this before, but here’s a slightly more comprehensive look at the historical record. Here is a plot showing Kikkan Randall’s World Cup sprint results as well as those for any other American woman:

Note the handful of top twenties just this season, and there’s certainly more results clustered around 30th or so, but the median result hasn’t budged all that much. Contrast that with the equivalent graph for distance skiing:

Is it possible that Kikkan has done more to improve US women’s distance skiing than sprinting?

Related posts:

1. <USST Preview: Kikkan Randall
2. <Can Kikkan Randall Win The Sprint WC Title?
3. <Follow-Up On Kikkan Randall