Olympic Weekend Wrap-Up Hannah Kearney already had earned the title of Olympic champion. Now the red-hot freestyle skier is a World Cup record-holder as well.
Photo Courtesy: www.theswimpictures.com - Amanda Weir won the women’s 100-meter freestyle Sunday for her second gold medal of the meet at the Missouri Grand Prix in Columbia.
Hannah Kearney already had earned the title of Olympic champion.
Now the red-hot freestyle skier is a World Cup record-holder as well.
Kearney won her 15th straight FIS Freestyle World Cup Sunday in Beida Lake, China, setting a record for the longest World Cup winning streak in any discipline.
“That is the biggest honor I can possibly receive, considering all the amazing athletes that have crossed through the FIS World Cup circuit through the years,” said Kearney, who won Team USA’s first gold medal of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games.
Ingemar Stenmark had won 14 consecutive alpine events from 1978 to 1980.
Kearney began her streak at Lake Placid, N.Y., Jan. 22, 2011.
After qualifying for the finals in first place, Kearney had some trouble and went into the Super Finals in fourth before pulling out the record-breaking win.
“I qualified first for finals, but in the first round of finals [I] made a mistake on the second mogul,” Kearney said. “Luckily, with all my competitive experience, I knew that it was never over ’til it’s over.
“I pulled it together and skied a really clean run from there down.”
Elsewhere, Sarah Hendrickson won her sixth FIS Ski Jumping World Cup of the season Sunday in Ljubno, Switzerland.
Holly Brooks, Ida Sargent, Liz Stephens and a brilliant anchor leg from Jessie Diggins produced a fifth-place finish, the best U.S. women’s relay effort ever, at the FIS Cross Country World Cup Sunday in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic.
SWIMMING
Amanda Weir won the women’s 100-meter freestyle Sunday for her second gold medal of the meet at the Missouri Grand Prix in Columbia.
Weir, an Olympian and U.S. National Team member, finished in 54.41 seconds. She also won the 50-meter Saturday.
“I’ve been working on my starts a lot — really working on the dolphin kicks,” Weir said. “It’s never really been one of my strong points, so I’m just trying to pick out all my little weaknesses and fix them.”
Katie Ledecky, 14, won the 800-meter freestyle, coming within less than a second of Sippy Woodhead’s 34-year-old national age group record.
Ryan Murphy, 16, won the men’s 200-meter backstroke.
Olympian Matt Grevers won the 100-meter backstroke Saturday and finished third in the 100-meter freestyle Sunday. He capped off a memorable performance by proposing to his girlfriend from the medal stand.
FIGURE SKATING
The United States won half of the medals at the Four Continents Figure Skating Championships Thursday through Sunday in Colorado Springs.
Fresh off winning her first U.S. championship in San Jose, Calif., last month, Ashley Wagner won the ladies’ title Saturday while Caroline Zhang finished third.
The pairs teams of Caydee Denney-John Coughlin, who train in Colorado Springs, and Mary Beth Marley-Rockne Brubaker finished second and third behind China’s gold medal-winning combination of Wenjing Sui-Cong Han Sunday.
