Hollingsworth wins World Cup skeleton title
Last Updated: Friday, January 22, 2010 | 12:43 PM ET
By Dan Robson, CBC Sports
Mellisa Hollingsworth kisses the skeleton World Cup trophy, after securing the overall title with a third place finish on Friday. (Christof Stache/Associated Press)Mellisa Hollingsworth did it again — and again and again and again.
After reaching the podium for the seventh time in eight races, Hollingsworth was named the overall World Cup champion for the 2009-10 FIBT skeleton season on Friday.
Hollingsworth, 29, was simply exceptional this season, winning two gold, two silver and three bronze medals.
The sliding star from Eckville, Alta., finished third at a World Cup event in Igls, Austria, to the secure the overall women's title for the second time in her celebrated career.
Meanwhile, on a foggy night in Eckville, Alta., Darcy Hollingsworth watched his daughter slide to World Cup victory over a CBC internet feed.
In a den decorated with Mellisa's medals, news clippings and rodeo belts, Darcy shared his emotions in a blog for CBC sports.
'Proud father'
"Right now it is 3:00 am. I have to work in the morning and I am up cheering at the computer," he wrote between Mellisa's first and second heats in Igls.
"I am going to get back to the second heat and cheer at the computer," he wrote. "Then try to get some sleep, drag myself to work in the morning and hopefully be the proud father of world champion skeleton racer. Ya, that has a nice ring to it."
As most of us slept unknowingly, Darcy watched his daughter's dreams come true.
Reached at work, on about two hours of sleep, Darcy said he spoke with his daughter right after she was named champion around 6:30 a.m. MT.
"I just said, 'Congratulations world champion!' "
An ever-humble but driven athlete, Hollingsworth has become one of the key figures in Canada's drive to own the podium in Vancouver next month. By finishing first in FIBT rankings, she will start first at the Vancouver Olympic Games.
First medal
"I am very, very happy to win the overall title and I can't think of a more perfect position with fresh ice and my home track in front of me than having that No. 1 bib in Whistler," Hollingsworth said after being named champion.
"It was really special to hear O Canada today, and it made me teary-eyed thinking 'what if' with the Olympics up next. But I can't get ahead of myself."
She won her first overall World Cup title during the 2005-2006 season, en route to winning a bronze medal at the Olympics in Turin, Italy. It was Canada's first medal in women's skeleton.
Hollingsworth collected 1,646 points in the World Cup, edging out Shelley Rudman of Britain by 42 points to take the overall title. Canada's Amy Gough and Michelle Kelly finished ninth and 13th, respectively, in the overall standings, while Carla Pavan was 16th.
Germany's Anja Huber won Friday's race in Austria, claiming the European Championship.
