Kari Erickson (born December 18, 1971, as Kari Liapis) is an American curler and Olympian.

Career

Erickson started curling in 1988 and had a successful junior career, winning the Minnesota State Junior Championship five years in a row, 1989–1993. Three of those years she went on to win the United States Junior Championship (1990, 1992, 1993). Winning the US Championship allowed her to represent the United States at the World Junior Championships, at which she finished 5th, 2nd, and 3rd, respectively. In 1994 Erickson made her first appearance at the United States Women's Championship, making it to the semifinals. After a few year gap she returned to the National Championship five more times in a six year span: 1997 (2nd), 1998 (1st), 1999, 2001 (1st), 2002 (2nd). As US Champion in 1998 and 2001 she represented the United States at the World Women's Championships, finishing 7th in

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

and 5th in

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a multi-national coalition in an invasion of Afghanistan ...

. She has twice competed at the US Olympic Trials, finishing third in 1998 and first in

. At the

2002 Winter Olympics The 2002 Winter Olympics, officially the XIX Olympic Winter Games and commonly known as Salt Lake 2002 ( arp, Niico'ooowu' 2002; Gosiute dialect, Gosiute Shoshoni: ''Tit'-so-pi 2002''; nv, Sooléí 2002; Shoshoni language, Shoshoni: ''Soó ...

in Salt Lake City the Erickson team had a 6–3 record at the end of the

round robin Round-robin may refer to: Computing * Round-robin DNS, a technique for dealing with redundant Internet Protocol service hosts * Round-robin networks, communications networks made up of radio nodes organized in a mesh topology * Round-robin schedu ...

. The United States team lost to Switzerland in the semifinals and Canada in the bronze medal match to finish 4th. Erickson's Olympic team included her sister

Stacey Liapis Stacey Liapis (born August 19, 1974) is an American curler from Bemidji, Minnesota. She played much of her career on teams with her sister Kari Erickson. She is a two-time Olympian, in 1998 and 2002, and a two-time United States National Champion ...

at second and her dad Mike Liapis as coach.

Personal life

Erickson is the sister of

. She is married to Darren Erickson and has two children.

Teams

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Erickson, Kari 1971 births Living people People from Bemidji, Minnesota American female curlers Olympic curlers for the United States Curlers at the 2002 Winter Olympics American curling champions 21st-century American sportswomen 20th-century American sportswomen