Fifth Olympics is the charm for Randall
DEDICATION: Team USA’s only mom breaks through for gold medal after competing in Games since 2002
Technically, every mother deserves a gold medal.
But Kikkan Randall, the only mom competing for Team USA at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, literally earned one Wednesday, combining with Jessie Diggins to win the United States’ first medal in women’s Olympic cross-country competition (the duo edged their Swedish competitors in the team sprint free final). The medal is the first for American cross-country skiers in the Olympics since Bill Koch won a silver in 1976.
For Randall, 35, Pyeongchang marks her fifth Olympics appearance and first since the arrival of son Breck 22 months ago. Not that Breck was around to see his mom win gold; he’s in Canada with his grandparents, and Randall was missing him terribly, especially after he often joined her during her international schedule of events (the family calculated it would cost in the neighbourhood of US$15,000 to $20,000 to bring Breck and a caregiver to South Korea, according to FiveThirtyEight).
“I won’t get to see him for a full month, which is going to be really hard because I’ve just gotten so adapted to life chasing around a toddler,” Randall, whose hometown is Anchorage, Alaska, told the Huffington Post before winning gold.
“But he is doing great with his grandparents. I FaceTimed with him tonight and he’s having a great time. I know he’s in a good place, so now I can focus on what I need to do.”
Randall missed a season of racing because of her pregnancy, when she adopted a shortened version of her twice-daily training routine.
She stuck with weight training and interval work, and was still doing training runs through her seventh month of pregnancy.
She took two to three weeks off after Breck’s birth to “really take a chill,” but then it was back to training — and back to success.
Randall brought Breck along in a jogger for training hikes and runs, pumped breast milk between workouts and scheduled his feedings into her routine, according to The Associated Press.
Randall — who intentionally positioned her childbirth midway between two Olympics and in a non-World Cup year — has attracted admirers for her decision to stick with her craft.
At her first Olympics, the 2002 Salt Lake City Games, Randall’s best result was 44th.
Randall, who finished no better than fifth in her other three events in South Korea, plans to retire when these Games end.