Olympian blown away by support since diagnosis
Gold medalist skier is battling breast cancer
Since being diagnosed with breast cancer last month, Kikkan Randall has wondered how this could have happened to her, an Olympic gold medalist coming off the pinnacle moment of her career.
Randall stood atop the podium in Pyeongchang, South Korea, on Feb. 21 with her teammate Jessie Diggins after winning the first Olympic gold medal by an American cross country skier. The only mother on the U.S. Olympic team last winter, Randall came back from taking a year off for maternity leave to compete in her fifth Olympics.
“We obviously see that cancer doesn’t discriminate,” Randall said in a phone interview Friday. “You can go from winning an Olympic gold medal and four months later you find out you have cancer. I think it’s important to show that we can all be affected by this but rallying around the points of staying active and taking this one step at a time.”
On Mother’s Day, Randall felt a hard spot in her breast and knew she needed to get it checked out.
Since announcing her diagnosis on her blog and on social media last week, Randall has been blown away by the thousands of messages of support she’s received from the skiing community, fans and cancer survivors.
On Friday she Facetimed with some of her teammates, who wore pink wigs in support of their friend, who’s known for coloring her hair pink.
Among those who have called offering encouragement was fellow Alaskan DeeDee Jonrowe, an Iditarod musher who is a breast cancer survivor.
“I never would have guessed that breast cancer affected so many people,” Randall said. “But now that I’m part of the club, I’m so grateful that people are reaching out.”
Friday the 35-year-old was feeling the effects of her first round of chemotherapy, which took about seven hours. She rode her bike to the hospital and was surrounded by family and friends for the treatment at Providence Alaska in Anchorage. She’s hopeful that being in such good shape as a world-class skier, an avid biker and runner will help her bounce back more quickly.
“The one thing I’ve noticed, though, in the last day or so, I’m so used to feeling good and being able to go out and do anything I want and have energy,” said Randall, who’s a mom to 2-year-old Breck.
“I think not feeling like that is going to be a hard adjustment for me. It’s going to take patience to wait for the days when I get back to that feeling.”
Randall recently moved from her hometown of Anchorage to Penticton, British Columbia, with Breck and her husband, Jeff Ellis. Since retiring from skiing after the Olympics, Randall has spent time traveling and speaking to young girls as part of her Fast and Female initiative.
Thousands of people have touched her gold medal, she estimates, including the nurses who helped her through her first round of chemo.
“The best part of winning an Olympic medal is getting to share it with everybody,” she said.
Randall and Diggins are candidates to win an award for Best Olympic Moment on Wednesday during ESPN’s “ESPYs” awards show.
“It’s incredible to be a part of it, and if we were to win, I think that would be an amazing step forward for cross country skiing,” Randall said. “I’ve always wanted to raise the profile of our sport, especially for what it can mean in terms of inspiring people to live a good lifestyle. It’s pretty cool to be getting that kind of attention.”