Miranda Lindaman and Paavo Rova Named as the 2023 Moose Valuable Skiers

We’re excited to announce the two winners of this year’s Moose Valuable Skier Award: Miranda Lindaman of Winona and Paava Rova of Duluth East. Congratulations to these two skiers who exemplify the Moose Nordic values of sportsmanship, humility, empowerment, and integrity! Each of them will receive a pair of Madshus race skis and a pair of boots from Finn Sisu.

Miranda was nominated for her joy in skiing, ability to listen to and encourage teammates, and dedication to her team even through injury: “After working on the craft of roller skiing all summer and looking to hit her junior season in top form, she tore her ACL during the first soccer game of the season. Surgery followed in early October and the ski season was gone. However, this is where Miranda shined the most. The team was good again and won many honors. Miranda was not a part of these honors, but still chose to humbly attend practices three times a week while traveling with the team to every meet including state.”

Paavo lives out the Moose Nordic values by forming friendships with skiers from competing teams, his ability to humbly work through setbacks, and willingness to help younger skiers: “Paavo regularly warmed up and cooled down with the skiers from other teams. During the Ely pursuit race he was out on the team sprint course cheering all the sprinter’s teams into the finish. And one of my favorite moments of empowerment was when he was found between the morning skate and the afternoon classic races of the last important race determining the Section’s team inside the wax room helping two seventh graders kick wax their skis.”

Being fast is not the most important thing in life and these skiers live that out. Way to go!

We received many compelling nominations and really do wish that we could award all of our nominees for their character and contributions to their communities. It’s encouraging to hear so many stories of high school skiers inspiring teammates, putting others before themselves, and making things better around them. And a big thank you to all those who took the time to write nominations celebrating their their teammates, friends, etc… We hope that the process was beneficial to all! Moose it.