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Kikkan Randall, Coolest Mom, just ended Team USA’s cross-country skiing medal drought

By Michelle Bruton

PYEONGCHANG-GUN, SOUTH KOREA - FEBRUARY 21: Jessica Diggins of USA and Kikkan Randall of USA celebrates their gold during the women's Cross Country Team Sprint Free Technique at Alpensia Cross-Country Centre on February 21, 2018 in Pyeongchang-gun, South Korea. (Photo by Nils Petter Nilsson/Getty Images)
PYEONGCHANG-GUN, SOUTH KOREA - FEBRUARY 21: Jessica Diggins of USA and Kikkan Randall of USA celebrates their gold during the women's Cross Country Team Sprint Free Technique at Alpensia Cross-Country Centre on February 21, 2018 in Pyeongchang-gun, South Korea. (Photo by Nils Petter Nilsson/Getty Images) /
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Kikkan Randall and Jessica Diggins ended the United States’ 42-year medal drought in cross-country skiing — and became the first American women to medal in the sport.

All moms are Olympians, or at least do Olympic amounts of work.

But Kikkan Randall, Olympic gold medalist, is Team USA’s only literal Olympic mom.

Since her debut at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, Randall has competed in five Olympic Games, including Pyeongchang. But with plans to retire after the 2018 Games, it was a real possibility that she would finish her Olympic career without a medal.

Until Tuesday.

Randall’s plans to retire hinge on spending more time with her family, including her young son, Breck, who was born in 2016. (And, yes, he’s named after the Breck Epic event held in Breckenridge, Colorado, every year.)

Out of the 108 women on the U.S. Olympic team in 2018 (the most of any Winter Games!), Randall is the only mother. Meanwhile, there are 20 fathers.

Heading into their final race, the women’s team sprint event, Randall and her teammate, Jessica Diggins, weren’t the favorites to medal. After all, no American women had ever done it in Olympic cross-country skiing.

That’s why their accomplishment is so historic:

To call the results of Tuesday’s race close would be a massive understatement.

Diggins, who skied the final leg of the race, and Sweden’s Stina Nilsson were fractions of a second apart in the final seconds of the race. But Diggins, in one final, glorious burst, pushed her left ski over the finish line first, edging out Nilsson by 0.19 seconds:

PYEONGCHANG-GUN, SOUTH KOREA – FEBRUARY 21: Jessica Diggins of the United States (14-2) stretches across the finish line to win gold ahead of Stina Nilsson of Sweden (12-2) during the Cross Country Ladies’ Team Sprint Free Final on day 12 of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games at Alpensia Cross-Country Centre on February 21, 2018 in Pyeongchang-gun, South Korea. (Photo by Matthias Hangst/Getty Images)
PYEONGCHANG-GUN, SOUTH KOREA – FEBRUARY 21: Jessica Diggins of the United States (14-2) stretches across the finish line to win gold ahead of Stina Nilsson of Sweden (12-2) during the Cross Country Ladies’ Team Sprint Free Final on day 12 of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games at Alpensia Cross-Country Centre on February 21, 2018 in Pyeongchang-gun, South Korea. (Photo by Matthias Hangst/Getty Images) /

Randall credits her son with giving her the strength and determination to finally win a medal on her 18th try.

“It was this team event, this race in particular, that really motivated me to go for one more Olympics, really pushed me through my comeback after having my son,” Randall told Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb on NBC’s TODAY.

“It’s just so cool, I hope it gives a lot of inspiration to all the moms out there that you can come back to being active, and physical and stronger than you’ve ever been.”

Kikkan Randall: Coolest Mom.

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