Role Models 2.0

By Published On: December 22nd, 2014Comments Off on Role Models 2.0

How Emily Cook sticks the landing

Recently, I was visiting with a longtime USSA trustee, and I asked him what he enjoyed about his work. His immediate response was: “Role models. Those athletes strive for excellence on a world stage, and we can learn so much from their unique drive and character.”

Let me share one extraordinary story of how competitive skiers are role models in the sport — and beyond the sport.

Emily Cook, a freestyle aerialist, was a three-time Olympian and now works for Skull Candy. We can look at her Olympic achievements to learn from her as a role model, but understanding her whole story illustrates another set of lessons about all of our role models.

Emily moved to Park City at age 17 and qualified for the Salt Lake 2002 Games. Unfortunately, she broke both of her feet in a bad crash-landing during training and was knocked out of the Olympics. That kind of blow is clearly devastating, but what made her a three-time Olympian was how she responded. First, she still felt part of the team, and she said the only way to get over the disappointment was to stay involved with her team even when she could not compete herself. (Alex Diebold dealt with his 2010 disappointment the same way. He worked as a coach for his teammates in Vancouver. Then, in 2014, he reached the podium at Sochi.) The lesson here: skiing is an individual sport, but “team” pulls athletes to the highest levels.

For Emily, 2002 was a year of recovery. But instead of hiding away, she teamed up with Visa to create Champions Creating Champions, an organization that matched up 34 Olympic and national team athletes with Park City and Salt Lake City youth in a mentoring program. Just as “team” kept Emily growing in the sport, “giving back” gave more purpose to her recovery. Everyone knows that any ski career is full of disappointments. How to effectively deal with those disappointments is one of the longest lasting lessons of the sport. Team and giving back kept Emily in the sport as she dealt with setbacks.

As all of this was going on, Emily also worked away on her degree at the University of Utah. I am not sure how she did that, too, but she stayed committed to learning.

After Emily recovered from injuries, she went on to compete in three Olympics and step on a World Cup podium nine times. During all of this success, she didn’t forget the lessons learned while hurt; she stayed involved in many organizations focused on giving back. One of the organizations, Classroom Champions, allowed her to connect with school children but also helped her grow on a personal level. The experience taught her “succinct and effective communication” and how to be “responsible for something outside myself.” Emily retired from competition this spring, and her new job puts her in charge of Sports Performance and Human Potential for Skull Candy. “I never would have gotten that job without learning the communication skills that Classroom Champions taught me,” she says. Now she looks forward to making an impact on how music affects performance.

Back in 2012 Luke Bodensteiner (Executive Vice-President of Athletics, USSA) chaired a USSA task force on athlete career, education and life skills that concluded: “The USOC should lead by establishing a culture that values athlete career, education and life skills development as a performance enhancer, and that values successful athlete transition away from elite sport.” Emily’s journey epitomizes that goal. Team, giving back and education helped her grow in the sport during the unavoidable ups and downs of competition.

Which brings me back to our trustee. He also said: “We have been Best in the World, so we have to ask ‘So what?’ What will be the impact of those Olympians?’” Emily Cook’s story helps us answer that question: there are many parts to sticking the landing.

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About the Author: Jory Macomber

Following a 25-year career at the Holderness School in New Hampshire, Macomber was named head of school at the USSA TEAM Academy in Park City, Utah, and Vice President, Athlete Career and Education for USSA.