First & Second World Cup Victories Come In One Weekend For American Rosie Brennan

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They say that one always remembers their first, but that is only the half of it when it comes to this past weekend in Cross Country World Cup action. American racer Rosie Brennan not only took her first career World Cup victory, but she took her second victory, as well.

“That is quite honestly something I'm not sure I've ever even dreamed of,” Brennan said after her victories, which also landed her the top spot in the overall for cross country. “Obviously, we have only had a few races, but it's something I'm proud of nonetheless and while I'm not sure I expect to keep them all the whole season, I hope to do them proud while I have them and put up as good a fight as I can!”

Her first win came at the end of the day on Saturday, December 12, when the 32-year-old pulled off a freestyle sprint win, even surprising herself a little bit. She said this about the win on Saturday, “It’s wild. I have never considered myself a sprinter, so to find myself on the podium in a sprint is something I honestly didn’t even dream of. I was thinking about (tomorrow’s 10k freestyle), so this is just incredible.”

As incredible as the first win may have felt, it can easily be said that a back to back feels even better. On Sunday, Brennan came out swinging again as she ran up a 34-second win in the 10km ahead of Russian racer Yulia Stupak.

However, the big bonus for the day was sharing the podium spotlight with another American who just happened to land the first podium of her career. It was 22-year-old Hailey Swirlbul who was able to land in the third position at the end of the day.

"A really exciting and surprising day (for me at least, but I had a feeling Rosie would crush it!!)," Hailey said. "I had a split with about 2.5k to go that I was in the running for a podium, so I dug REALLY deep to fight for it. All I could do was give my best and I truly left it all out there. The techs and coaches have really helped set our team up for success this weekend and I am truly honored to be part of it."


Thumbnail Photo: Rosie Brennan/2019 - Credit:  Granada, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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