Deer Valley World Cup skiing — 'Great year' for Cook

Emily Cook isn't an old woman by any standard.

But the 28-year-old skier is the oldest athlete competing in aerials for the U.S. Freestyle Ski Team, which takes to the slopes at Deer Valley this weekend for the FIS World Cup competition. Now the veteran of the squad, Cook said she's enjoying that role.

"I've always been the youngest, and then one day I realized, I'm now officially the oldest," said the Belmont, Mass., native who now lives in Park City. "I love being around the younger athletes. It keeps it fun; everyone is so excited to be competing."

Cook and her young teammates will compete on Friday, with qualification rounds for women at 1 p.m., men's at 3:45 p.m., and the finals under lights at 6:30 p.m. Hell's Belles will perform with fireworks at 8:20 p.m.

"It's always super exciting to compete at Deer Valley," said Cook, who attends Westminster College in her spare time. "It's the best stop on the tour for most of us. Not only is it home for me, but we always have a big crowd, under the lights, the band, the jumps are awesome, it's just an incredible site."

Cook is having "a great year" after taking most of last year off to deal with minor back injuries. She has spent most of the last four years coming back from injuries. She broke both her feet in 2002, which meant missing the Olympic Winter Games. She had lingering issues until 2006 and then last year began having trouble with her back. She and the U.S. Ski Team coaches decided resting was the best course of action as her number one priority is being healthy for the 2010 Olympics.

"I am having a great season," she said. "My training is going fantastic. I'm landing tricks consistently in training, and they're at a competitive degree of difficulty ... I'm finally healthy and training a ton."

Instead of working her way back, Cook said, she's now doing more difficult tricks and actually competing with the world's best. She finished seventh at Lake Placid two weeks ago after having a little trouble with the landing.

"For me, it's time to start stepping it up," she said. "I need to be doing these tricks every week, in competition, regardless of the weather."

She said after another bad landing last weekend, she's confident she's saved the best for her home-town crowd.

"I decided I'm saving it up for this weekend," she said laughing. Cook is now competing in the finals with a triple twisting double flip. It is the first year she's done that trick in competition on a consistent basis.