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Show 'Something hod to change' Coolc skates to Colorado By TOM HARALDSEN Clipper Correspondent BOUNTIFUL Somewhere on the frozen floor of the Metrodome in Minneapolis last Saturday, among the moor, and her new coach, veteran skating mentor Kaihy Casey. With that move, Holly has cast her die and sent a message to her friends and fellow competitorsthe best is yet to come. It was just 12 months ago in Salt Lake City when the Viewmont High graduate was on top of the skating world, earning a bronze medal at Nationals and a berth on the U.S. team heading to Worlds in Halifax, Nova Scotia. There, she surprised the world with a dazzling performance that resulted in another bronze medal. Holly Cook had achieved a long-time goal of being one of the best in the world. What followed was both beneficial and detrimental to her career, a whirlwind tour around the country with other medalists that severely cut into her training time and her personal energy and strength. Once Holly did return to Bountiful, a series of scheduling conflicts at the Bountiful Ice Arena disrupted her training schedule even more. Frustrated both physically and mentally, she finally went to Colorado Springs for a last-minute last-minute tuneup for the Nationals, but even as she took the ice in the nationally-telecast Ladies' finals last Saturday, she felt defeated. "I struggled the whole year," she told the Clipper in an exclusive interview inter-view before leaving town. "I lost my confidence. I think Saturday needed to happen for me to realize that you either need to change the situation or retire." SEE HOLLY ON A-2 broken dreams, came perhaps the rebirth of Bountiful Boun-tiful figure skater Holly Cook. Two falls dur-i ing triple jumps and a sixth place finish at the United States Fig-ure Fig-ure Skating Championships) 1 " 1 gave Holly a chance to reflect on the events of the past year, and a glimpse into the future. She summed up her feelings at that moment in four words: "Something had to change." So Holly left Thursday morning for her new home, Colorado Springs; her new arena, the world-famous Broad- Holly CONTINUED FROM A-1 Holly has ho plans to retire. With a seemingly renewed confidence, she , spent Wednesday making final prep arations for her move to Colorado. She hopes to eventually live at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, and will begin training with her new coach next week. Casey has impressive credentials, creden-tials, as among her clientele was former champion Rosalynn Sumners. Perhaps more importantly, however, the Broadmoor will give Holly a place to concentrate. Since the beginning of her skating career in Bountiful, she has had to contend . with public skating sessions and very non-segmented training times to accommodate ac-commodate the popularity of the arena. In Colorado Springs, she will be part of a private arena, and perhaps eventually a new skating club with an emphasis on world-class training. She will also be surrounded by fellow skaters who are competing on world-class world-class levels. What lies ahead for Holly, at least in the near future, is work on more triple jumps, increased artistic skills, and "the mental part of skating. I , really need to improve on the mental elements." This summer's Olympics Festival and, of course, working for a spot on the 1992 Olympic Team that will travel to Albertville, France, are also on the agenda. It will be a new adventure for Holly, living away from home and training without her long-time coach and friend Kris Sherrard. She has no current sponsorship and may have to work while in Colorado to support herself during training. Still, the likable Bountiful native seems excited ex-cited about the challenge, and determined deter-mined to make the climb back to the top of the figure skating hill in the next 12 months. |