Devon Kershaw

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Devon Kershaw (born December 20, 1982) is a Canadian cross country skier who has been competing since he was a mini-midget. Growing up in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, he split his extracurricular time between hockey and cross country skiing before having to make a choice that would affect the future of competitive cross country skiing in Canada for the next twelve years and counting.

He first entered the international ski scene at the age of 17, competing at the World Junior Ski Championships. He would continue this streak of excellence by joining the Canadian Junior Team in 2000 and improving greatly over the next six years with the help of great coaching, great training venues, and national and international exposure on the racing circuit.

His best individual finish at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships was 14th in the individual sprint in 2005 while his best overall finish was sixth in the team sprint (with Drew Goldsack) in 2007.

Kershaw's best individual finish at the Winter Olympics was 37th in the sprint event at Turin in 2006. During the men's 4x10km team relay, Devon started strong - when he handed off to teammate Sean Crooks, Canada was in first place. The team ended up eleventh.

During the first Tour de Ski in 2006-2007, Devon came 2nd in the first Stage - the Freestyle Sprint, a position that was later upgraded to first when the first place skier, Christoph Eigenmann, was knocked out in a later stage. Unfortunately, Devon became sick and was unable to defend his title in the second sprint race later in the Tour, causing him to lose the overall title.

He was also the first Canadian male cross country skier to medal in the sprint category - placing third in the Freestyle Sprint in Borlaenge, Sweden, on March 7th, 2006.

In November of 2006, he skated his way into the history books again by placing a best-ever finish for a Canadian male in more than 10 years in a World Cup distance event - 15th in the Men’s 15 kilometre freestyle race in Gaellivare, Sweden.