The Inside Edge - Kanning competes at Nationals
(Courtesy photo) Local Annaby Kanning became the first athlete from Sandpoint to compete in the Nordic Jr. Nationals recently.
n World Cup — Mikaela Shiffrin locked the Overall Women’s title with a third place Giant Slalom finish Ofterschwang, Germany. She followed that with Slalom Gold, earning the Slalom Season Championship as well. This was her 42nd World cup win and the most ever before age 23. We won’t venture a guess how many she’ll win in her career. Lindsey Vonn won downhill Gold at the World Championships, her 82d World Cup win. She missed winning the season Downhill Championship by three points. Alice McKinnis took the Bronze in the downhill.
On the Men’s side, Jared Goldberg put down his best World Cup Super G finish with 16th at Kvitfjell, Norway. He was also 27th in Downhill. Bryce Bennett was 15th in the Downhill. We’ll report the remainder of the Championship results next week.
n Sandpoint sends first-ever racer to Nordic Junior Nationals — Annaby Kanning never skied before five years ago when her mom found a flier for the fledgling Sandpoint Nordic Club at school. She thought her daughters might like to learn, and signed them up. In five short years Annaby went from struggling around courses to qualifying for the Junior Nationals in her first year of eligibility.
The event included athletes from 10 Divisions across the country — the Pacific Northwest Division sent 34 athletes. National Championships in all the various disciplines give aspiring athletes a chance to watch and compete against the best, and often inspire future Olympians. A less obvious benefit is the special bond athletes form when they move up to regional teams. After years of competing against each other, they pull together for a common goal. Some of that camaraderie was clearly evident while watching our Nordic athletes in the recent Olympics.
Sometimes the steps forward aren’t as big as we hope. Annaby worked hard, skied some of her best times, and was in the middle of the pack. Her coach, Vicki Longhini, reminded her that she was only 14 years-old and competing against some of the top talent in the country. Annaby competed in the 5K Classic, a 5K Freestyle Skate, and anchored the Classic 3X3K relay. We look for great things as she grows in the sport.
n Western Region Championships — The Championships are underway and we’ll have a full report next week.
n Potpourri — Any comments, recommendations or contributions to this column may be sent to Shep Snow by email at shep@thesnowschool.com. Negative feedback should be sent to someone else.
The Inside Edge runs every Thursday during ski season in the Bee sports.