3.02.08
Massachusetts Skier Emily Cook
Scores First World Cup Win New Englanders Bode Miller and Lindsey Jacobellis
also come up big in an exciting weekend of ski and board action.
Flying off a towering
scaffold under challenging weather conditions while being watched by
30,000 spectators —
including Russian bossman Vladimir Putin
—
Belmont, Massachusetts skier Emily Cook scored her first World Cup win
Saturday night in downtown Moscow.
Cook, fourth after the first jump, won the
FIS Freestyle World Cup event under the most challenging of conditions
when many of the top World Cup contenders faltered. Heavy winds, low
snow and very little training were all factors. The 2006 Olympian stayed
focused and hit two of the best jumps of her career.
"This is an incredible feeling," said a
jubilant Cook in the finish. "I knew that someday my first World Cup win
would happen. It's really rewarding to go out and perform your best and
be on the top of the podium. I was shocked. Really and truly, you just
focus on your jumps and take it one jump at a time. I was at the bottom
and had no idea I had won."
"Emily just did a super job," said U.S. Freestyle Head Coach Jeff
Wintersteen. "She did the absolute best she's ever done - two great
jumps in difficult conditions. She clearly had the two best women's
jumps of the night."
Cook went out on her first jump with a full-full, two flips with a twist
on each flip. But knowing that the strong headwinds would continue, Cook
and coaches strategized to go more conservative on the second jump to
ensure a podium.
"It was a strategic idea to downgrade her
on her second jump just to get a top three," said Aerial Coach Matt
Christensen. "It turned out perfectly. She jumped perfectly and just
blew everyone away to take the win."
Cook's second jump, a lay-full including two flips with a twist on the
second, was executed nearly perfectly to ensure the win.
"We had a huge headwind all day and not enough inrun speed," said Cook.
"We were just trying to figure out how to get the speed we needed. I had
planned on full-double full-full on the second jump. When I headed up,
Matt said we were still on. But at the top, we decided to be smart and
make the wise choice. And it worked.
"And we'll definitely be ready to throw big DD next week!"
It has been a long road for Cook whose quick rise early in her career
was cut short with a horrible accident just prior to the 2002 Olympics.
She shattered both feet and ankles training in Lake Placid. Many
surgeries later, she came back to compete in Torino in 2006. But a win
had eluded her.
Meanwhile, other New Englanders also
scored big in World Cup action this weekend. New Hampshire ski icon Bode
Miller grabbed three podiums in Norway over the weekend, extending his
overall lead. With six races remaining in the season, Miller has 1,363
points to 1,178 for Swiss chaser Didier Cuche, who took over second
place after Saturday's downhill. The World Cup now swings to Kranjska
Gora, Slovenia, for a giant slalom and slalom, the final races before
World Cup Finals scheduled for March 12-19 in Bormio, Italy.
In snowboarding on Saturday, Vermont's
Lindsey Jacobellis won the Visa U.S. Snowboarding Cup at Whiteface
Mountain outside Lake Placid, New York.
