Born:
December 20, 1982

Devon Kershaw – biography

Devon grew up in Northern Ontario as part of an active family that nurtured his love of sports. In his younger years, Devon played hockey, volleyball, badminton, tennis and did competitive running. However, cross country skiing became his passion and he competed in three World Junior Championships (2000, 2001 and 2002). He won 18 National Junior medals before moving to Canmore, Alberta to pursue his athletic goals.

In March 2006 Devon won a bronze medal in individual sprint at a World Cup in Borlange, Sweden, and in November 2006 he came second and won a silver medal in the Men’s 15 kilometre classic race at an early season World Cup in Saariselke, Finland. In January 2007 Devon came second in the first stage of the Tour de Ski – the Freestyle Sprint – but unfortunately he became ill and was unable to finish the tour. Devon was the first Canadian male cross country skier to stand on a World Cup podium since Pierre Harvey in 1988.

Devon competed in four Olympic Winter Games: 2006 Turin, 2010 Vancouver, 2014 Sochi and 2018 PyeongChang. Although he did not win an Olympic medal, his best-ever finish was in the 50 kilometre Men’s Mass Start Classic event at the Vancouver Olympics. The top five men in this race all finished within 1.6 seconds of one another, with Devon missing out on the bronze medal by 0.6 seconds. In the same Winter Games, Devon and Alex Harvey had a fourth place finish in the team sprint.

In the 2010/2011 racing season, Devon finished eighth in the overall World Cup standings and earned his first World Cup gold medal. In individual World Cup competition from 2010 to 2018, Devon won a total of four gold, 4 silver and 5 bronze medals. In team competition, Devon won a bronze medal in January 2017 in the 4 x 7.5 kilometres Men’s Relay at Ulricehamn, Sweden, with team-mates Alex Harvey, Len Valjas and Knut Johnsgaard.

At the 2011 FIS Nordic Ski World Championships in Oslo, Norway, Devon and team-mate Alex Harvey won the gold medal in the team sprint event, bringing Canada its first ever World Championship gold medal.

In the 2012 Tour de Ski Devon finished in 4th place overall, the best placing by a Canadian to that date. In the 2011/2012 ski season, he finished second overall in World Cup standings, winning a total of two gold, one silver and three bronze medals during the season.

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Devon retired from competitive international ski racing at the end of the 2017/2018 season.

Sources: Canada Olympic Committee, Wikipedia