Kikkan, Kurka among Alaska Sports Hall of Fame award winners

Kikkan Randall and Andrew Kurka, a pair of Alaska skiers who returned from Pyeongchang, South Korea, with the coolest souvenirs imaginable, will be among those honored by the Alaska Sports Hall of Fame next month in Anchorage.

Randall, an Anchorage woman who helped the United States win its first Olympic gold medal in cross-country skiing, and Kurka, a Palmer sit-skier who brought home gold and silver from the Paralympic Games, will receive the Pride of Alaska awards for consistent excellence in athletic competition.

Randall will share the women's award with Fairbanks musher Roxy Wright, who ended a 21-year retirement last winter to win the Fur Rendezvous Open World Championship and the North American Open Championship, the two biggest races in sprint mushing.

[Olympic skier, volleyball coach voted into Alaska Sports Hall of Fame]

The Pride of Alaska awards are among four Director's Awards presented each year the Sports Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

This year's other awards will go to:

NeNe Hale of Anchorage, winner of the Trajan Langdon Award for leadership, sportsmanship and inspiration. An NAIA All-American basketball player for Central Methodist University in Fayette, Missouri, Hale and her siblings were homeless and not attending school before being taken in by a foster family in Wasilla. Now she's on the Dean's List and a top contender for the NAIA Player of the Year award.

Jim Mahaffey of Anchorage, winner of the Joe Floyd Award for significant and lasting contribution to Alaska through sports. Mahaffey built a nordic skiing juggernaut at Alaska Methodist University and started the Tuesday Night Race Series in Anchorage, and helped start the Equinox Marathon in Fairbanks. AMU sent numerous skiers to the Olympics, including some of the first U.S. women to compete at the Games.

The Directors' Awards will be presented at an April 24 ceremony at the Anchorage Museum, where volleyball coach Virgil Hooe of Anchorage and two-time Olympic skier Holly Brooks of Anchorage will be inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Dolly LeFever's ascent of the Seven Summits will be enshrined as a moment and the Arctic Winter Games will be honored as a Hall of Fame event.