May 30th 2026
Team Birkie Names Randy Gibbs as High-Performance Coach and Race Service Director
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Julie Ensrud, Managing Director | julie@teambirkie.org | 612-594-2486
Team Birkie Names Randy Gibbs as High-Performance Coach and Race Service Director
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. - Team Birkie has named Randy Gibbs as High Performance Coach and Service Director.
Gibbs arrives at Team Birkie with extensive coaching experience and one of the most decorated ski service resumes in American Nordic skiing history.
A veteran of three Olympic Games, Gibbs served as Head of Glide for the U.S. Ski Team at the Vancouver 2010 and Sochi 2014 Olympics before leading ski service for Ski and Snowboard Australia at the 2018 PyeongChang Games. His World Championship experience spans six events across two national programs: Sapporo 2007, Liberec 2009, Oslo 2011, and Val di Fiemme 2013 with the U.S. Ski Team, and Lahti 2017 and Seefeld 2019 with Australia. He also served as Head of Service for U.S. Junior and U23 World Championship teams across six consecutive championships from 2006 to 2011, and accumulated more than 300 FIS World Cup race days across both programs.
In 2017, Gibbs was named International Coach of the Year by Ski & Snowboard Australia (now Snow Australia), recognizing his contributions to the Australian Nordic program at the World Cup and Olympic level.
His coaching background runs equally deep. Gibbs has coached at the high school and club levels in Minnesota for more than 15 years, working with White Noise Nordic, Minnesota Valley, and Loppet Nordic Racing. He coached at Hopkins High School where his teams won three consecutive Minnesota Girls State Championships from 2002 to 2004. Among the athletes he developed during that era was Courtney Dauwalter, who went on to become one of the greatest ultrarunners in history. In the documentary The Source, Dauwalter credits Gibbs directly: “He taught me everything I know about basically going into the pain cave — that place where it really hurts. He was the one who taught us how to go in there and be okay with it.”
Gibbs also introduced his sister, professional triathlete Becky Lavelle (née Gibbs), to the sport of triathlon, coaching her for approximately 15 years. Lavelle went on to become one of the most decorated American triathletes of her generation, earning over 50 career wins, a 2003 Pan Am Games bronze medal, the 2005 USA Triathlon National Championship, back-to-back USA Triathlon Multi-sport Athlete of the Year awards in 2006 and 2008, and a spot on the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team for the Beijing Games.
Gibbs made an immediate impression on the Team Birkie program at the 2026 SuperTour Finals in Craftsbury, VT, where he provided ski service for the team’s historic club relay win, one of the most significant results in the program’s history.
“Team Birkie is building something rare in American Nordic skiing: a program with genuine international standards, a deep community foundation, and real ambition to develop athletes from anywhere who want to compete at the highest level. My goal is to help build the systems that make that sustainable.” — Randy Gibbs
Team Birkie is a Midwest-based professional cross-country ski team formed through collaboration between the American Birkebeiner Ski Foundation, the Loppet Foundation, and Central Cross Country Skiing. Athletes compete at the FIS World Cup, U.S. SuperTour, and regional marathon levels. www.teambirkie.com