“I've been taking it one step at a time and getting a little bit more involved each year and I’m ready to commit full-time for a long time,” she said.

Cook started cross country skiing when she was two, on a sled pulled by her family’s standard poodle when her parents took ski trips to the backcountry trails of upstate New York.

“My parents dragged me everywhere,” she reminisced. “That dog died, but its funny because I have a Jack Russell terrier now and there’s no way she could pull me.” She laughed, “My dad did his fair share of pulling as well.” By age eight, Cook no longer used a towrope and was able to beat her parents in races.

She got introduced to biathlon when she was 15 and eased into the sport after being invited to a recruitment camp in Lake Placid, N.Y.

“I did the camp but I didn’t do any biathlon until the next summer when for some reason I picked up a rifle, practiced shooting and did my first trials. Based on those results, I got invited to a development camp in Colorado Springs, Colo. and I loved it.”

Cook was fifth at the 2000 World Junior Biathlon Trails, her first, after miscounting her penalty laps which added to her overall time.

In the New York Ski Education Foundation’s (NYSEF) Nordic Season Opener at Mt. Van Hoevenberg when she was 16, Cook placed first in 20:14 to win the J1-Female 5K that earned her the honor of NYSEF Mid-Atlantic Skier of the Year for 2001. Her early highlights also include placing second in the 2000 Senior Canadian Sprint Championships.

Having competed for the U.S. Junior National “B” Team last season, Cook is looking forward to her first full year on the 2003-04 Junior National “A” Team. Of Cook, USA Biathlon Association (USABA) Development Director Jerry Kokesh said, “She’s a first-year junior but unquestionably the brightest prospect we have,” adding, “She’s very physically mature and will probably be one of the top juniors in the world this season.”

Cook will train with fellow team members Brian Olsen (Bloomington, Minn.) and Kelsey Bouchard (Fort Kent, Maine) in Maine with U.S. development coach James Upham. Cook admits that the training she is experiencing is different than the skiing she was doing with her local Nordic club in New York.

“My training hours have gone up to about 100 [per week],” said Cook, adding, “With Jim Upham there’s a lot of individual attention on technique and we do a lot using video feedback. Each workout has a goal so you go out for a long ski and maybe its easy, but you’re thinking about technique. Or, you go out for a short workout but it’s about shooting.”

For Cook, it’s fun to train close to her hometown ski region. She said, “I’m at camp right now in Lake Placid with the National Team and its fun because every day I see the local team I used to train with down at Mt. Hoevenberg playing ski games. It’s fun to see those kids and think, ‘That’s what I used to do.’ The U.S. team is still fun, it’s just a lot more focused.”

Focus paid off when she landed in the top-20 twice at the 2002 World Junior Championships in Ridnaun, Italy. In the Youth (under 19) Women’s 10KM Individual competition, shooting 1-0-3-3 moved her into ninth place after prone, but she missed six targets standing and finished 16th. In the Youth Women’s Pursuit 7.5KM she finished 19th and expects to make big improvements this year. “I hope to place in the top-10 at World Juniors,” she said. “I felt a little bummed about last year actually, but I feel really confident about skiing.”

And about shooting?

“On my high school team I probably averaged 40 to 50 percent. Now, I definitely average 70, 80 or 90 percent. The biggest reason my figures have improved is my expectations are higher. When I used to shoot, I would be psyched to hit one or two standing, now I totally want to clean every time and I’m bummed if I don’t clean.”

In 2002-03, Cook was the youngest biathlete in the World University Games (WUG) in Forni Avoltri, Italy, but had the fastest split time with clean shooting in the women’s relay. “It was neat to just think, ‘I'm skiing with a past Olympian’ since there were a couple girls from the Ukraine Olympic Team. It felt really cool to be skiing on relay teams with the older juniors and I was psyched because it was a great learning experience with a lot of racing and there was a little bit more pressure.”

She explained the significance of the upcoming Junior & Youth Championships and Junior World Championships Team Trials, Dec. 26-Jan. 2 in Grand Rapids, Minn. “If you make a team then you win a spot to go to Europe to race at the 2004 World Junior Championships, Jan. 24-31 in Haute Maurienne, France, and do a couple Europa Cups. If you don’t make it, unfortunately there’s not a great amount of racing in the U.S. for biathlon, so it’s pretty important.”

Cook had two podiums on the Europa Cup in 2002-03. She remembers, “There was one girl and we battled it out – one day she would win and the next day I would win and that was cool and I was proud that I got to go into the award ceremonies, but I compared myself more to how I was in the overall field against the juniors rather than just my age group.” In the final North American (NorAm) Cup rankings for 2000-01, Cook was eighth among the junior women and in the final New England Nordic Ski Association (NENSA) points for the 2002-03 season, she finished 12th overall and second in her age group.

Right now, Cook is taking correspondence courses through Empire State College (N.Y.), but “I can’t say I love doing it. I’d much rather be in a class full of interaction and interesting people and I’d like to major in voice and piano, but I have to put that on hold because that takes as much time as skiing, but wherever I live I try to take piano lessons and that’s the one thing I really like to do outside of skiing.”

Cook doesn’t have a favorite ski experience because “skiing always turns out to be an adventure” and she is definitely ready for more in 2004.