Gold medals land Alaska skiers Randall, Kurka on ESPY ballot

Alaska's latest Olympic gold medalists are both in the running for ESPY awards.

Anchorage cross-country skier Kikkan Randall is a nominee for best Olympic moment along with teammate Jessie Diggins of Minnesota, and Palmer's Andrew Kurka is a nominee for best male athlete with a disability.

Randall and Diggins made history with their dramatic victory in the team sprint race in Pyeongchang, South Korea. Their triumph, which came by a fraction of a second, gave the United States its first gold medal in the sport.

They became media darlings in the aftermath, going from interview to interview with pink highlights (Randall) and sparkles (Diggins) in their hair. For Randall, a 35-year-old mother of a young son, the medal capped a long career that included five Winter Olympics. She retired at the end of the season.

Kurka, a 26-year-old monoskier, won a gold and a silver medal at the Paralympics in Pyeongchang. He obliterated the field to grab gold in the downhill and the next day collected silver in the super-G.

The ESPY Awards are the Academy Awards of sports, a star-studded affair started by ESPN in 1993.

Fans decide the winners via online voting that continues until the day of the awards ceremony July 18 in Los Angeles. You can cast a vote here.

Randall and Diggins are competing against three other big moments from American athletes in Pyeongchang — Shaun White's halfpipe victory, the U.S. women's hockey team's victory over Canada in the gold-medal game, and the U.S. men's curling team's win over Sweden in the gold medal game.

Kurka's competition includes nordic skier Dan Cnossen, sled hockey player Declan Farmer and snowboarder Mike Schultz.

The only Alaskan to win an individual ESPY award is Anchorage's Sean Rash, the winner of the 2012 best bowler award. Anchorage's Mario Chalmers was part of the Miami Heat team that won ESPYs in 2012 and 2013 as the best NBA team.