Stats and Highlights

2006 US Olympian 

First World Cup Win in 2008 

4 World Cup Podiums

3 Time US National Champion 

2 Time Olympic Trial Winner

4 Time World Champs Team Member

For video of jumping and profiles please click here

Summary

Determination is an aerialist, current U.S. champion and ex-gymnast Emily Cook, who grew up in suburban Boston and never let go of a dream to compete in the Olympics. Sidelined by injury after making the 2002 Olympic Team, Cook missed three World Cup seasons while rehabilitating her badly injured feet but returned to compete in the winter of 2005 (making the World Championships Team), and reached her Olympics in '06 in Italy. And, Cook says, she's not done yet.

Cook, has added difficulty to her repertoire since the last Olympics, which has given her the edge she needed to make it to the top. She won her first World Cup in front of over 30,000 spectators in downtown Moscow in the 2008 season and added an early season hometown podium in Lake Placid in 2009 finishing 3^rd.  The confidence from her first victory has left her amped about continuing to tighten her triple-twisting jumps, adding a new one in 2009, so she can have them mastered for the Vancouver Olympics. "Motivation is not an issue for me as we move toward 2010,” she said. “I’m just so excited!”

Emily is known for overcoming obstacles, motivating others, and elevating her games to a new level. 

Update (for the ’09 Season):
Coming off the best season of her career, and having overcome multiple surgeries and two-plus years of rehab to achieve her long-held dream of competing in the Olympics in February of '06, Cook has decided to keep jumping with the goal of Olympic Gold in Vancouver in 2010. The season started off well with a World Cup Podium (3^rd) in front of friends and family in Lake Placid, New York. Click here for details. 

History

Crash landing (a bit of history):
The top U.S. female aerialist leading up to the Salt Lake Games, Cook secured herself a spot on the Olympic team with a win at the 2001 Gold Cup. But two weeks later, and two weeks before the Opening Ceremony, she crashed during a training jump in Lake Placid and caused serious damage to both feet. With the Olympic aerials competitions taking place in her hometown of Park City, Cook watched from a wheelchair with a red white and blue cast with stars on one foot and an orthopedic boot on the other. Her teammate Speedy who took her place visited daily and even showed the world what the US aerials team is made of by flashing NBC cameras with gloves saying “Hi Emily”. Emily’s coaches, teammates, friends, family and sponsors supported her through the Salt Lake Olympics and on to Torino. 

Back on the hill: Cook underwent the first operation to repair her feet a week before the 2002 Games began, and her second surgery -- one she didn't anticipate having to endure and a major setback in her rehabilitation -- took place in June 2003. But through all of the surgeries and the rehab, Cook thought about the 2006 Opening Ceremony, and the chance of walking in with her U.S. teammates was too strong to give up. She rejoined the World Cup circuit three years after her crash in January 2005. Two months later, Cook placed seventh at the 2005 Worlds, tops among Americans. Despite the abbreviated season, she finished 14th in the 2004-05 World Cup standings. 
Just one year after returning to her sport, Cook won the 2006 Olympic Trial and secured her spot on the 2006 Olympic Team. Walking into the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games with her teammates, she said was the most amazing moment of her life

Start-Up: Cook, whose mother died when she was 2, skied at 4 and moved into freestyle when she was 14 as a member Carrabassett Valley Academy’s heralded program in Maine. A gymnast and diver as a youngster, she was a combined skier to start. By 17, she had made the U.S. Freestyle Team and moved to Park City to train fulltime. She was on two Junior World Championships teams, saw her first World Cup action in acro and earned her first World Championships berth in 1999. Cook also earned the aerials bronze at the 1999 Junior Worlds in Finland.

Personal: Not one to waste time, Cook founded "VISA Champions Creating Champions," a mentoring program in which winter Olympians from a variety of sports work with youngsters who otherwise might not be exposed to their sport...Another of Cook's pet projects is helping promote Right to Play, which strives to bring sport and play to the most disadvantaged children worldwide, and - in her words - "giving kids a chance to be kids"...

No Surprise Dept.: Asked for one word to describe herself, Cook said "Unstoppable… or stubborn depending on her mood"

...When she wasn't able to train, Cook coached young kids in aerials at the Utah Olympic Park and went to school at the University of Utah...

She enjoys SCUBA diving, flyfishing with dad, yoga and pilates, reading, learning to surf. 


Father Don is retired and living full time in Park City, Utah where he has been working as a photographer (for lots of pics of Emily and teammates click here). To get more kids active Cook currently works more with the Women's Sports Foundation, "to get young girls active!" the Youth Winter Sports Alliance in Utah, She Jumps, and Right to Play. 

Professional Appearances

PROFESSIONAL APPEARANCES

Delivered Drug, tobacco and alcohol free lifestyle motivational speeches for middle school and high school students with Discovery Resource Center, East Coast States, 2002-2003

Presented keynote motivational speeches at major corporate conferences for companies including Visa USA, Inc., Bank of America, John Hancock, Chevron, and Lenovo from 1997 to the present.

For information about professional appearances please refer to the "contact Emily" page. Thank you. 

Media

Television

NBC Today Show, Tonight Show with Jay Leno, NBC Evening News, Tim McCarver Show, 60 Minutes, TV Guide Channel, NBC coverage of US World Cup Events from 2002-2008

To View profiles and interviews including The Tonight Show and an interview with Tom Brokaw please click here

Magazines

Sports Illustrated, Sports Illustrated for Women, Glamour, Life, Self, Newsweek, ESPN, Park City

Newspapers

USA Today, Boston Globe, Chicago Sun Times, Salt Lake Tribune, Deseret News

Featured in 2002 Sundance Film Festival Documentary Pipe Dreams