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Suspended in air, nearly 50 feet above the snow in Lake Placid, N.Y., Emily Cook knew she was in trouble.
After years of training, the freestyle aerials skier instinctively knew she hadn't built up enough speed when she launched herself off the "kicker" to do her trick during a training session just three weeks before the 2002 Winter Olympics. Plus, the wind was in her face.
This one was going to hurt.
"Our coaches talk to us when we're in the air," Cook said. "They'll say, `Pull!' if you're a little slow and they want you to speed up your rotation (and maximize air time).
"I got in the air and heard not only my own coaches yelling `Pull!' but all of the other nations' coaches and basically everyone who was on the hill."
Cook pulled with everything she had, but it wasn't enough. She landed on the flat "knoll" well short of her intended landing area, the steep slope of impact-cushioning, chopped-up snow and pine boughs. And she landed hard.
The jarring impact broke bones and tore all her ligaments in both feet. Her left ankle was grotesquely dislocated. When medical personnel got to her and cut off her ski boot, Cook "passed out cold."
Her feet, and her Olympic dream, were shattered.
"I was actually told that I might never walk normal again," Cook said. "I might never ski again and it was unlikely I'd ever (compete) again."
Four years after cheering on her teammates from a wheelchair in Salt Lake City, the 26-year-old Cook not only is competing again but on Dec. 30 won the U.S. Olympic trials in Steamboat Springs, Colo. She finished sixth in a World Cup aerials meet last week and is one of America's top hopes for a medal next month in Turin.
Her comeback, after two operations to rebuild her broken feet and 2 1/2 years of rehabilitation, is one for the ages. It was possible only because Cook refused to indulge in self-pity and was unwavering in her commitment to return to her sport.
"Emily," fellow aerialist Jeret "Speedy" Peterson said, "is one of the most positive people I know."
That attitude was instilled in Cook at a tender age. After her mother was killed by a drunken driver when Emily was 2, Don Cook was left to raise their daughter alone in suburban Boston.
"He taught me very young that it's very important to choose to be positive and choose to move on with your life," Emily Cook said. "I consider being in a wheelchair, breaking my feet and missing the Olympics small beans compared to what he went through.
"I think it's always important to look at what you do have, what you have to be thankful for."
Not that the last four years have been all sunshine and smiles for Cook. In the summer of 2003, more than a year after her first reconstructive surgery and frustrated by her lack of progress, Cook returned to her doctor.
"He said, `Basically, the only option we have is another surgery and it's a very intensive one, a bone fusion and lots of hardware,' " Cook said. "And he predicted at least a one-year recovery. I thought for sure I'd be back by that point, so that was my lowest point."
She soldiered on, one day at a time, progressing once again from wheelchair to crutches to unsteady steps. She focused on non-weight-bearing strength and conditioning, such as yoga and Pilates, until she was able to resume ski training.
By June 2004, Cook was ready for the next challenge, a training camp with Navy SEALS in San Diego. On a long run, she suffered a stress fracture in her leg and couldn't go on. Her U.S. teammates picked her up and completed the run, taking turns carrying her on their shoulders.
"Emily was crying and smiling at the same time," Peterson said.
Finally, Cook was ready to begin water training, in which the aerialists practice their tricks and land in a pool. The next step was taking it to the snow, which Cook did in the fall of 2004 in Park City, Utah.
"Fear is a part of our sport," she said. "Yeah, I'm not going to lie, I was scared. But I trusted my training. I trusted that I was strong enough and that I had prepared well enough to come back to the sport."
Activity on the hill came to a stop that day. Cook, who had worked extensively with a sports psychologist to prepare for this moment, turned to her teammates and said, simply, "I'm fine." Then she jumped.
"When she came back and made that first jump, I don't think there was a dry eye on the hill," said Joe Pack, the men's Olympic silver medalist in 2002. "It was pretty memorable."
Cook, who said recently that her body "never felt better," finished seventh at the 2005 World Championships and also was seventh at an Olympic test event at Sauze d'Oulx, a small village north of Sestriere that will play host to freestyle aerials at the Games.
Qualifying for the women's event is scheduled for Feb. 19, with the finals scheduled for Feb. 22.
"I've never in my life worked so hard for something and I know looking back after Torino I'm going to be proud of it, regardless of what the results are," Cook said. "Of course, I'm striving for that Olympic gold medal."
Would we expect anything less?
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(c) 2006, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service.
