Lake Placid News
Remsen native Erin Hamlin was named as the best female Olympian on Wednesday as part of the Best of U.S. awards program that recognizes outstanding performances from the Olympic and Paralympic Games, as determined by fan vote.
“I’m pretty much in awe,” said Hamlin, a luge athlete who trains and lives part-time in Lake Placid. “It’s so amazing to not only get a medal, but then be honored because of it, especially with the company I had in the female athlete category. And to have it be a fan vote for a sport like luge is amazing for our program. I can’t begin to say how excited I am. Such a crazy couple of months.”
Hamlin became the first-ever U.S. Olympic medalist in singles luge after winning bronze at the Sochi Olympics. The results were even more impressive considering the 2009 world champion had not stood on a world cup podium in two years. Her performance also broke a 34-year German/Austrian hold on the women’s luge Olympic podium.
Other Olympic honorees for Best of U.S. were: Sage Kotsenburg of Park City, Utah as best male Olympian, the U.S. ice dancing team of Meryl Davis (West Bloomfield, Mich.) and Charlie White (Bloomfield Hills, Mich.) as team of the Games and Noelle Pikus-Pace (Orem, Utah) took home the award for moment of the games with her medal celebration in women’s skeleton.
The Best of U.S. Awards Show will air Monday, April 7 on NBCSN from 7 to 8 p.m.
On the Paralympic side, alpine skier Mark Bathum (Mercer Island, Wash.) was tabbed best male Paralympian, alpine skier Stephanie Jallen (Harding, Pa.) collected two awards for best female Paralympian and moment of the Games, and the men’s sled hockey team was designated team of the Games.
Additionally, Horace Mann Elementary School (West Allis, Wis.) took home the fan of the games award, while figure skating coach Kori Ade was selected as the recipient of the USG Building Dreams Award, which honors an individual who has gone above and beyond in his/her support of Team USA athletes.
The 10 awards were presented during a live taping of the inaugural Best of U.S. Awards Show supported by USG, held Wednesday at the Warner Theatre in Washington, D.C. The awards show featured NBC’s Willie Geist as host, and figure skaters and commentators Johnny Weir and Tara Lipinski as red carpet and backstage correspondents.
For a list of all the winners:https://www.lakeplacidnews.com/page/content.detail/id/521511/Hamlin-named-best-female.html?nav=5007
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