July 26, 2013 at 2:41 p.m.
Fire and ice
Rhinelander's Cook to compete, carry torch at 2013 State Games of America
Fire and ice
The 14-year-old figure skater will travel to Hershey, Pa. at the end of the month to take part in the State Games of America, an Olympic-style event for athletes across the country.
"I'm expecting it to be a lot of nerves, a lot of nerve-wracking experiences," Cook said in advance of the event, which runs July 31 through Aug. 4.
But Cook will do more than compete, she will be a part of the opening ceremonies too, serving as a torch runner. She was selected as one of the runners after winning an essay contest.
"We sent in an application with some pictures and biography of stuff that I've done," she said.
In the application, Cook was asked to list her athletic achievements in figure skating, and other sports, and compose a short essay answering why she should be selected as a torch runner.
Cook, a member of the Rhinelander Figure Skating Club, earned her way to the State Games by virtue of her performance in February at the Badger State Games in Mosinee, earning a gold medal and a bronze medal in her competitions.
Soon after, her family decided to commit to the Pennsylvania trip.
"It's going to be fun, we're making a trip out of it for my family. I'm going with my dad, my mom and my grandma," she said.
Cook will be competing in two U.S. figure skating events - dance and program.
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Cook
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"I'm doing dance, which is to music that is set and is a specific pattern set to the ice in the rulebook," Cook explained. "You have to learn the pattern and dance it with a partner. Then I'm doing (skate) program, which you and your coach make up with a list of elements you have to do. Like I have to do a few spins and jumps. Then I have to do footwork along the length of the ice."
Cook said she started figure skating when she was three years old.
"I would always go (to figure skating), because my mom's boss' children skated," she said. "We always went to the ice shows to watch them and decided that I wanted to skate like them."
Cook skates six-to-10 hours a week in the summer, wherever she can find ice.
She has reached the high freestyle classification and helps Learn-to-Skate, Basic 1-8 and low freestyle skaters within the RFSC.
"I really like coaching the kids because I feel like I can put what I learned into what they are learning. It's really fun to talk to them," she said.
While coaching leading up to this year's Hodag Skate Classic, Cook displayed good sportsmanship by helping a competitor of one of the girls she coached, said Holly Rose of the RFSC.
"Lauryn was coaching a competitor and noticed that my daughter's song was too short and said something to my daughter and her coach," she said. "You get points taken away from your song not being the right length. Had it not been for Lauryn, my daughter would have had some major points deducted. Even though she was coaching a competitor, she's so much of a team player that it wouldn't be in her nature not to say something."
Acts like that helped put Cook in the spotlight, where she will be Aug. 2 during the opening ceremonies. Her biggest fear, she said, is dropping the torch. That's an ironic twist, given that the music to her skate program is from the 2012 hit movie "The Hunger Games."
"(Hunger Games heroine) Katniss Everdeen is the girl on fire, and I'm the one carrying the torch," Cook said. "We didn't even notice it at first."
But Rose, keeping with the theme, reassured Cook saying: "Katniss didn't get burned so we're sure Lauryn's going to do just fine."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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