Kikkan shakes a leg in women's relay

Skiing the first leg of the women's relay Thursday, Randall was in the lead after four kilometers of the five-kilometer race before finishing fourth, leaving her teammates just 10.4 seconds out of first place at Whistler Olympic Park in British Columbia.

The rest of the team wasn't able to hold onto that position and faded to 12th in the 16-team field.

Sparked by a magnificent anchor leg by Marit Bjoergen, Norway captured the gold medal in a 55 minutes, 19.5 seconds. Germany took silver 24.6 seconds later, 3.8 seconds ahead of bronze-medal-winning Germany.

The United States was 3:38 behind Norway in 58:57.5, but for a brief shining moment, Randall had the Americans in the lead.

"When you first come on the (World Cup) circuit, it's really hard to imagine yourself at that level," Randall said in a phone interview. "When I did shoot into the lead, I was just cracking up to myself -- 'I'm leading the Olympic relay!'

"It's a great feeling. It's so fun to be able to go out and ski with those girls."

When Randall says "those girls," she means women who make a habit of winning World Cup and Olympic medals. Randall said she skied with the front pack for the end of the first lap and the entire second lap and grabbed the lead for about 30 seconds while on a downhill.

She finished in 14:57.5, the fourth-fastest split time of the scramble leg and just 10.4 seconds off the pace set by Sweden's Anna Olsson.

"I've been on the World Cup a few years now and I knew that if I could put together a good race that I could bring our team in near the front," Randall told reporters after the race. "It's fun to be ahead of those teams that you know can win medals."

These have been a terrific Olympics for Randall, even though she has no medal to show for it.

A three-time Olympian who trains with the Alaska Pacific University nordic program, Randall placed eighth in the individual sprint race last week, the highest Olympic finish in women's cross country in U.S. history. The race used the classic technique, not the freestyle technique that is her strongest sprint technique and the one in which she earned a silver medal at last season's World Championships.

In the team sprint earlier this week, Randall showed what she can do on skate skis. In the morning semifinals, she skied three 1.4-kilometer legs in the two-person relay and had the fastest times in two of them. On the anchor leg of the finals, she moved the United States from eighth place to sixth place with the leg's fourth-fastest time in a field that included several Olympic medal winners.

Randall's teammates, who have less experience on the international scene, weren't able to maintain the position their star put them in.

Holly Brooks of Anchorage, a coach at APU until she decided to train for the Olympics less than a year ago, skied the second leg and dropped the Americans to 13th place. Skiing the classic format, she posted 16:12.8.

"I'm just not feeling 100 percent," Brooks told reporters after the race. "I don't know if I have some underlying sickness. My head was hurting a lot at the end of the race and my legs kind of fluttered at the end of the race."

Morgan Arritola of Sun Valley, Idaho, fared no better -- her 13:41.6 freestyle leg kept the Americans in 13th place. On the final freestyle leg, Caitlin Compton of Minneapolis clocked 14:05.6 to move the United States up one notch to 12th place.

Find Beth Bragg online at adn.com/contact/bbragg or call 257-4335.