The Johnny5: Kikkan Randall
The Johnny5 represents the people that changed things for skiing in the US in the last year. You wouldn’t know it from the endless whining that consumes us in the Spring, but this WAS a solid year for American Skiing. (Capitalized for a reason.) That didn’t come by accident. So here they are in no particular order the (roughly) five folks that pushed change in 08 / 09. We’ll do one a day for the week. We’ll also include some tidbits at the end of the Johnny5 from the nominations that are sure to entertain. Stay tuned.
Had Andy Newell or Kris Freeman finished second at the World Championships, the long and tired “Does the US suck at skiing?” articles on Fasterskier and throughout various internet sites would likely have been put to rest this year. Had we seen Noah Hoffman win at World Juniors or even another American male finish on top at the NCAA championships, those might have been decent enough finishes to bode well for the “future” of US skiing. When people write “US skiing future”, they mean dudes. At a World Cup not many seasons ago, the head of another (as in, not-US) country’s ski service said on the ski test track, loud enough to barely be heard. “This is ok- it’s for the women. We’ll use their data for the real race.” Inevitably whichever gender shows up first is going to act as a test crew, but to be overt about it is patriarchal, mysogynistic and short sighted. This makes it tougher for women to succeed in skiing, which makes Kikkan Randall’s results and efforts even more significant. To the endless ponderers of would-be World Cup success, if you want to improve skiing in the US, read every comment you post considering only the women’s fields. Do this and improvement will happen in skiing where it is at its weakest: the depth of the women’s fields. While we have stong examples like Kikkan, Liz & Morgan, the depth of the field falls off quickly. Too quickly. Who wants to be in a sport where women are so overtly an afterthought? Kikkan Randall knows this and is doing something about it.
More than her World Championship finish (or her World Cup win from Rybinks in ‘08), more than her sheer committment to skiing, even more than her position as the FIS rep for all things female, Kikkan is changing the game by empowering women to revel in skiing. Kikkan partnered with Chandra Crawford’s Fast & Female group. Together Fast & Female is acting as a rallying point and should be used as a model for the rest of the ski community at large. Their logo “empowerment through sport” refers to the subjugation that women face regularly and sport’s ability to allow women to rise above sexism.
Kikkan’s outreach isn’t an isolated event. Andy Newell is known for speaking to a number of high school groups, the In-the-arena crowd does outreach consistently and with an important cross section of humanity. Yet, it’s Kikkan’s work that could arguably have the largest impact on the future of the sport.
Finally, there’s the clot. In addition to just being creepy as hell, the blood clot does a couple of things: It points out a legit concern that some female athletes face with some birth control. It demonstrates that even if you are absurdly talented and do everything right you still aren’t guarenteed anything in the way of success. And it made a flawless story of overcoming that will rival Kris Freeman’s diabetes / compartment syndrome, whatever it was that Lance had and Michael Phelp’s new asthma inhaler. By the time the Olympics roll into Vancouver, what Kikkan did this year will translate into more TV time next year for skiing and she only had to suffer her face off for it.
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One last note: Some of Kikkan’s selection to the Johnny5 certainly should be attributed to her program. Cult-like and prone to bits of self-revering pomp, APU cuts a wide swath, but the program led by Erik Flora is unarguably one of the reasons US skiing is improving and the nominations for Flora & CO were many and justified especially since they remain the only US club with a WC winner in their midst.