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Show ; In Our Opinion Utah let down her top skater I It's ironic that Utah is clamoring for permission to host the I 1998 Winter Olympics while the state's premier figure skater I can't find enough uncluttered ice to get in quality practice I time. Olympic hopeful Holly Cook loaded up her car this week I and moved to the snow-rcovered mountains of Colorado. The Viewmont High School graduate burst onto the skating I scene last season, wirining the Pacific Coast championships I and gliding to a bronze medal in both national and world com- I petition. I But as the 20-year-old championship-caliber athlete began I tuning up for more big time competition, she found herself I forced to book ice time alongside youth hockey teams and I hundreds of other skaters at various levels of skill who I also practice at the busy Bountiful Ice Arena. I So Holly Cook, one of the best in the world, has moved to a I new home in Colorado Springs, where she will practice on the I world famous Broadmoor ice arena. She'll be under the tutelage of a new coach, Kathy Casey, and hopes to eventually be invited into the U.S. Olympic Training Center, But most important Cook has the chance to skate on ice I uncluttered with so many others. She will be able to glide and spin with total concentration. She just couldn't get that in Utah. She left behind a situation where the Utah Sports Authority and the Salt Lake City Bid Committee for the Winter Olympics Olym-pics are still charging about, loudly braying that the the I Beehive state deserves the Olympics yet giving little thought to accommodating Olympic-caliber athletes already on hand. J And, we can't help wondering why Bountiful, which hosts ! I the Pacific Coast Sectionals each year and has come to think of I itself as the ice skating capital of the West, was unable to pro- 1 vide a winning environment for its top Olympic hopeful. |
