Snowboarder strives to fulfill Olympic dream

SANDPOINT - Driven by a 15 year-old promise to her grandmother and plenty of gumption and desire to make it happen, Sandpoint snowboarder Kai Cook is on a crash course - both literally and figuratively - to make the 2010 winter Olympic snowboarding team.

Cook, 30, is a relative newcomer to the sport of snowboardcross (SBX), having been in the sport a mere two years, but she has nonetheless set the bar high for herself. When she was 14, she visited her ill grandmother at the hospital and asked what she could do for her. Cook vividly remembers her grandmother saying “go to the Olympics.”

“I made a deal with her and as soon as I did I said ‘what am I going to do?'” recalls Cook, whose mother nearly made the Olympics in equestrian.

Cook proceeded to get into a host of sports after that, including wakeboarding, world outrigger canoe racing, swimming and jiu-jitsu. Then two years ago she watched the Olympic SBX competition on television, seeing the emerging sport for the first time.

“Watching that resonated so much I told my boyfriend about the promise,” says Cook, who had lived in Oregon, California and Colorado before settling in Sandpoint six months ago. “I made a decision right then and started training the next day. I love that it's aggressive and forcing me to step up in my own personal ways.”

She started her first year of FIS competition ranked No. 344 and finished it ranked No. 44. Admittedly, she learned much that first year, and came back stronger last year, finishing at No. 25 in the FIS rankings and grabbing a 12th place finish at the Grand Prix at Tamarack Resort.

At 30, she is relatively old for the sport she refers to as “controlled chaos,” and has had to battle through some injuries in her brief racing career. She trained with coach Mark Harris at Schweitzer this winter, and will leave shortly for Colorado Springs, where she plans to train brutally hard for six months.

“My goal is to get to the training center and out-perform everyone I have to,” says Cook, who does not lack for drive or ambition. “I've got one chance; it's do or die.”

She hopes to make the World Cup SBX circuit next season, acknowledging that while she's catching up fast in the sport, she still hasn't mastered many of the basics. Sandpoint is the hometown of Nate Holland, who has become one of the biggest names in the sport. Along with Pat Holland, Sandpoint will have three SBX racers vying for the 2010 Winter Olympics in the upcoming year, considered by most the biggest ever in the sport.

“The biggest thing is the promise I made to my grandmother,” says Kai of what's driving her.

Cook calls Sandpoint the first place she's ever lived that feels magical. She has set up an account at Bank of America in Sandpoint, in her name, for anyone wishing to help with her training expenses.