Alaska Well-Represented On Olympic & World Junior Teams

Three Alaskan cross country skiers were selected to represent the United States at the 2006 Winter Olympics. Kikkan Randall, Lars Flora, and James Southam all earned spots on the team based on their results over the past year.

Randall trains with APUNSC, while Flora and Southam are both former APUNSC members who now train on their own. Additionally, two other skiers on the team, Wendy Wagner and Abigail Larson, have been part of APUNSC in the past but now live and train Outside.

The 2006 U.S. Olympic Cross Country Team (previous Olympic experience included):

MEN
Chris Cook, 25, Rhinelander, Wis.
Justin Freeman, 29, Andover, N.H.
Kris Freeman, 25, Andover, N.H. (2002)
Lars Flora, 28, Anchorage, Alaska (2002)
Andrew Johnson, 28, Greensboro, Vt. (2002)
Torin Koos, 25, Leavenworth, Wash. (2002)
Andy Newell, 22, Shaftsbury, Vt.
James Southam, 27, Anchorage, Alaska
Carl Swenson, 35, Park City, Utah (1994, 2002)
Leif Zimmermann, 22, Bozeman, Mont.

WOMEN
Rebecca Dussault, 25, Gunnison, Colo.
Sarah Konrad, 38, Laramie, Wyo.
Abigail Larson, 32, Bozeman, Mont.
Kikkan Randall, 23, Anchorage, Alaska (2002)
Wendy Wagner, 32, Park City, Utah (2002)
Lindsey Weier, 21, Mahtomedi, Minn. (2002)
Lindsay Williams, 21, Hastings, Minn.


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Five Alaskans were named to represent the United States at the upcoming Junior World Ski Championships in Kranj, Slovenia. The team was announced following the US Nationals Championships, which also served as World Junior Trials, on January 10th.

Alaskans Mike Hinckley (former Alaska Winter Stars skier now at Denver University), Matthew Johnson (formerly AWS now at Middlebury College), Nate Berry (formerly Chugiak now at Montana State) and Max Trienen (Alaska Winterstars, senior at West) took four of the seven slots on the men's side. Treinen is the only high schooler to make the team.

Tazlina Mannix (APUNSC) is the lone Alaskan on a team of six women.

The World Junior Championships will take place in Kranj, Slovenia from Jan 31-Feb 5.

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Patrick Johnson (Alaska Winter Stars) qualified for the US SKi Team's J1 trip to Scandanavian Cup races Feb 3-5.

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In addition, all World Junior and J1 trip skiers mentioned above also pre-qualified for the Junior National Championships by placing in the top twenty juniors at the US Nationals. Christina Gillis and Anna Coulter also prequalified. Because they are prequalified, these skiers do not take up spots in Alaska's quota of 42 skiers for Junior Nationals. This means that Alaska is able to send more skiers to JNs.

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Congratulations to all of these skiers for successfully representing Alaska at the highest level of domestic competition.