Robbins Nest: This girl's a real Kikkanimal

Kikkanimal. Alaskan spitfire Kikkan Randall has the nickname Kikkanimal. It’s cute, it fits the easy-smiling, cross-country-engine-who-could pretty well.
    Randall became the first U.S. woman to reach a World Cup podium Jan. 21 when she finished third in a sprint in Rybinsk, Russia, somewhere up along the northern stretches of the Volga River. It marked the third time this season an American has been involved in a World Cup photo finish; nordic combiner Billy Demong (see below) is 0 for 2, now Randall is 0 for 1 … but at least she made the podium. Demong finished fourth each time.
KIKKANIMAL. Alaskan spitfire Kikkan Randall has the nickname Kikkanimal. It’s cute, it fits the easy-smiling, cross-country-engine-who-could pretty well.
    Randall became the first U.S. woman to reach a World Cup podium Jan. 21 when she finished third in a sprint in Rybinsk, Russia, somewhere up along the northern stretches of the Volga River. It marked the third time this season an American has been involved in a World Cup photo finish; nordic combiner Billy Demong (see below) is 0 for 2, now Randall is 0 for 1 … but at least she made the podium. Demong finished fourth each time.
    She’s been to three World Championships and two Olympics and, finally, made the U.S. Ski Team this season. She didn’t pout when she wasn’t named in previous seasons. There was no surly, churlish reaction. She just bore down a little harder and when the opportunity came this season, she seized it. And when the podium came last weekend, she seized that, too.
    Randall has split her time between the Alaska Pacific Nordic program and training with the ski team; she skipped the annual August camp in New Zealand so she could focus on training and not the grueling travel Down Under. She’d wonder, she said, when she would ever get to race on glacial-type conditions while training on the Eagle Glacier … and Rybinsk gave her the chance. She didn’t muff it; Finn Virpi Kuitunen, the World Cup leader, edged her in the quarterfinals, Randall took her in the semis … and finished a tenth of a second ahead of her in the final-final for her podium. She’s happy with the podium, she said, but she really was stoked because she made her contribution to the mounting success of the team.
    Randall’s confident without being cocky, never confuses pride in her skiing with ego, and she’s big — very big — on the concept of team, never focuses on the vertical pronoun.

Masked man? So, a journalist at Deer Valley Resort asked of Shannon Bahrke after she’d won the moguls event at the Chevrolet Freestyle International, “Who are you, really, because we know Shannon Bahrke never competes without glitter on her eyelids and you … nothing! No glitter!” Bahrke, after breaking into her trademark laughter, came clean: “I forgot this morning. It was so early and I was, like, ‘Oh, man …’ I just barely had breakfast, had to take a peanut butter bagel … but I forgot everything. That’s one thing that’s my staple — and I forgot today…” Explanation accepted.

Nordic combined skier Bill Demong was involved in two photo finishes for third place in consecutive World Cup events and got his pocket picked each time. In Ruhpolding, Germany, he was overtaken in the final sprint by Austrian Felix Gottwald, who got the nod for third place after jury members checked the tape and photos. In Oberstdorf a week later, he lost a tussle with German speedster Sebastien Haseney in another jury call. “I’ll get the next time,” Demong vowed after Haseney’s podium. “I’m getting closer every time. I lost by maybe two inches and this time it was only an inch. It won’t happen again."

SOUND BITES: Moguls world champion Hannah Kearney, asked if the subzero cold on the final night of the Chevrolet Freestyle International at Deer Valley was distracting as she churned through duals: “I’m from Vermont. This [pick an adjective: mousy, puny, wimpy, weenie cold] is paradise”…Still in moguls, Shannon Bahrke, when someone asked why younger bro’ Scotty went for aerials instead of following her through the bumps: “Because he’s crazy. Crazy! I’m the sane one.” Hey, what’s the use of having a younger brother if you can’t abuse him verbally, right?…And here’s a mythical gold medal for Lindsey Jacobellis, who’s done such a standup job of handling the heat after bungling her bid for the gold at Torino last February. She spanked the field Sunday to defend her World Championships SBX crown and noted, “I’d like to be recognized for what I've accomplished, rather than my mistake. I know my mistake will carry over for a long time, probably until the next Olympics … this will hopefully dilute that some.”

Now HERE is a student athlete. In case you missed it, Ali Crocker was honored Jan. 7 during the NCAA sports convention in Orlando with a Top VIII award, given to — duh! — eight athletes of prominence. Crocker was a first-rate cross-country skier for Dartmouth and also rowed for the Big Green as a freshman and sophomore; one year, she competed in both world junior championships for rowing and skiing. A Phi Beta Kappa, she graduated last June and now she’s a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University in England. Crocker majored in math and physics at Dartmouth; at Oxford, she’s studying astrophysics. Presenting the award, and just back from the national XC championships at Michigan Tech, was Crocker’s head coach, Cami Thompson, who moved up to Dartmouth’s director of skiing a year ago.

Forgive a dinosaur typist (and ex-altar boy) for paying attention to words in this era where society, largely, spends time disregarding words, but shouldn’t the plural of podium be podia? Somehow, the dull, electronic ping-ping-ping of one-armed bandits in Las Vegas (or anywhere) never will replace the sweet sound of quarters — or silver dollars (or nickels) — dropping into the pan beneath the front of the machine. And non-dairy dairy creamer just doesn’t cut it, either.

U.S. nordic chief Luke Bodensteiner should have come to Vegas this week. He rolled the dice Sunday and — with things looking shaky in Tarvisio, Italy, and an announcement expected Monday whether the world juniors and cross-country’s U-23 championships would be held or postponed, he canceled plane tickets for 20-plus athletes. A few hours later, FIS pulled the plug on Tarvisio. No snow, no go. With that kind of roll-them-dice luck, he should be at the SIA.07 show, taking time to make a run at the tables or the slots.

GOOD IDEA DEPARTMENT: Getting the Hall of Fame induction into outreach mode at the SIA show with Julie Parisien — well along with husband Tim Nuce as they await kiddo No. 4 (a medical student — and they’ll have four youngsters under the age of 6, should he be studying obstetrics?), Jonny Moseley and Trace Worthington gaining
honored member status. A second recognition program will take place back in Ishpeming, Michigan, in a few months, so the home of the hall maintains.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT: At her postrace press conference after finishing second in the downhill in Cortina, Julia Mancuso — still the darling of the Italian media, going back to her double-bronze showing at ’05 worlds in Bormio, was asked about sleeping in her bus (Daron Rahlves’ rock-star chariot last winter) at times. “In Italy,” she laughed, “it can be tough to leave the hotel because the food is so good”… On a par with Mancuso’s epic five-in-a-row podium performances would have to be Austrian Renate Goetschl in Cortina: her DH win Saturday was her 10th at the ’56 Olympic resort; she’s won there every year since the ’02 season.