Kikkan Butt

I've been remiss in blogging about the World Cup cross-country skiing that's taken place so far this fall and winter, but I'll break the silence to report that Kikkan Randall, an Alaskan sprint specialist, won today's sprint races in Rybinsk, Russia - the first World Cup win for an American since the late 1970s 1983. Kikkan blogs her racing here and on an email list, so I have the sense that she's a smart, talented, and unbelievably hard-working woman who's now demonstrating her potential. An official press release:


RYBINSK, Russia (Dec. 16) - Kikkan Randall (Anchorage, AK), who posted the first U.S. women's World Cup cross country podium last January, produced the first U.S. women's victory Sunday, winning a sprint in Rybinsk. She defeated world champion Astrid Jacobsen of Norway in the final meters of a 1.2K course for the first American win since Bill Koch in 1983.

Forecast: Significant blowing and drifting, with the possibility of heavy accumulation in rural areas.