“I Was Just Ecstatic:” Holly Brooks On Her USST Nomination

There’s only one new name on the list of nominations to the U.S. Ski Team that were published on Monday: Alaska Pacific University’s Holly Brooks. Given her unconventional path to the team, we called her this morning (in the middle of a battery of treadmill tests at the Center of Excellence in Park City) to talk about what being nominated at this point in her career means to her. The interview will be the feature of our upcoming podcast to be released in the next few days, and since we’re still editing the audio here’s a snippet of Brooks’ reaction to making the team:

It’s always been a goal, for past two seasons. This year I felt like maybe it was attainable. Going into the first period I had no idea what kind of results I’d turn in, not having a ton of experience on the World Cup in Europe. I really surprised myself in that first period, and I definitely started to think about it more and more as a realistic possibility.

Then the whole wrist thing happened in the Tour de Ski, and my season took a little bit of a dive from there. And so it was kind of a rollercoaster both results-wise, and physically and emotionally as well — just thinking, ‘Ok I’m on track, I’m on track’ — and then with the whole injury I kind of felt like I fell off the boat.

And really until the end of the end of the season, even in Vermont, I wasn’t given any indication as to whether what I’d turned it was good enough or not. So when I got the call, I was just ecstatic.

Check back soon for the full interview on our next podcast.