LUGE: USA's Hamlin included among 2009 AP Top 10 Female Athletes
Sandy Caligiore |
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December 28, 2009 12:00 AM |
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World title puts Hamlin in elite company
LAKE PLACID, N.Y. - Serena Williams, Kim Clijsters, Lindsay Vonn, Diana Taurasi.
If it is said that one is known by the company they keep, then Erin Hamlin is enjoying a growing reputation as one of the finest athletes in women’s sports, joining the abovementioned competitors who are at the top of their games.
The 2009 luge World Champion from Remsen, N.Y., Hamlin finished 10th in the voting for Female Athlete of the Year by members of the Associated Press.
Hamlin, headed to her second Winter Olympics in Vancouver, shocked the sports world last February when she captured the world title on her home track in Lake Placid. The accomplishment ended a 99-race winning streak amassed by Germany in World Cup, World Championship and Winter Olympic events dating back to the late 1990s. Earlier this month, she added her first-ever World Cup medal in Lillehammer, Norway.
"It is definitely not something I ever thought I would be grouped within," said the surprised 23 year old. "I think it is a great thing for luge and Olympic sports, in general, to get that recognition amidst a dominating field of professional athletes in mainstream sports."
Hamlin hopes to lead all females at the Whistler Sliding Center, site of the luge events, less than two months from now.
Williams, a tennis veteran who won this prestigious honor in 2002, was the top vote-getter for 2009. She hoisted trophies at Wimbledon, the Australian Open and the season-ending tour championships. Another tennis player, Klijsters came out of retirement to grab the U.S. Open. Vonn, meanwhile, won her second straight World Cup alpine skiing overall title and Taurasi was the Most Valuable Player in the WNBA.
Included in the female top 10 were two horses. Zenyatta is the five-year-old mare who became the first female to win the Breeders’ Cup Classic. Rachel Alexandra, the star two-year-old filly, lead the pack at the Preakness, Woodward Stakes and Haskell.
"I feel very honored to even be a part of that list of names, but also humbled since I was beaten by two horses," quipped Hamlin.
The top U.S. racer has returned to Europe with her Olympic teammates where she hopes to be mentioned among her sport’s best competitors in the final four World Cup events and then the Olympic Winter Games.
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