TRADING FEET FOR SEAT: Canyon-SRAM Corp. -- an acronym for the names of the bicycle component company's founders, Scott, Ray and Sam -- recently announced its Zwift Academy winner.
It's Little Rock's Leah Thorvilson, 37, a runner who'd repeatedly won the Little Rock Marathon and made it into the U.S. Olympic Trials four years ago. But she was forced to retire from running competitively after several surgeries on her knee. She began biking and entered the Zwift Academy professional women's racing team competition.
In the 11-month competition, she's bested 1,200 other contenders from around the world to score a professional cycling contract and the opportunity to race for the Canyon-SRAM team during the 2017 season.
The competition included three rounds and was narrowed down by a panel of judges analyzing data collected during online rides and workouts. The selection committee chose 12 semifinalists, and then narrowed the field down to a final three. The winner was chosen and announced while the group was in Mallorca, Spain, after taking part in the final competition.
"It's been an incredible journey and a totally surreal experience," Thorvilson says in a news release. She'd spent a large part of this summer taking part in group rides and completing structured workout programs. Her transition to cycling was mentioned here in September.
Visit facebook.com/gozwift to watch a video of Thorvilson learning she'd won the competition on the Finals Week, Episode 4, posting.
LOCALLY MADE: The second season of INSP's half-hour series Handcrafted America features four Arkansans. The artisans include Mountain View residents Owen Rein, who harvests his own trees to whittle rocking chairs; Jerry Lovenstein, who creates brooms by joining dried broom corn with wood; and the Timbo-based father and son Paul Gillam and Paul Gillam Jr., who share their state-of-the-art method for crafting end-grain cutting boards.
The Arkansans are to appear on three episodes -- at 8:30 p.m. Jan. 6, 13 and 20. INSP, a family entertainment channel owned by Inspiration Ministries, airs on satellite and more than 2,800 cable systems.
HIGH NOTES: Arkansan Michael "Mikael" Wood (North Little Rock High, class of 1996) recently was promoted to pop music critic at the Los Angeles Times. Wood, the son of Wendy and Tom Wood (of Big 94.9, Little Rock radio station KHKN-FM), graduated from Northwestern University in Illinois. Before joining the Los Angeles Times in 2012, he was a freelance music critic for Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, Spin and The Village Voice.
THE SCIENCE OF SUCCESS: Museum of Discovery's Kevin Delaney, who regularly appears on The Tonight Show, has landed a show of his own, Street Science, premiering at 9 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 11, on the Science Channel.
Contact Linda S. Haymes at (501) 399-3636 or lhaymes@arkansasonline.com
SundayMonday on 12/25/2016