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Anchorage cross-country skier Holly Brooks saw disappointment turn to delight Tuesday morning when the U.S. Ski Team called to tell her to pack her bags for Vancouver and the Winter Olympics.
The call came about 8:10 a.m. and went to the answering machine she and husband Rob Whitney share. Brooks was in the bathroom brushing her teeth. "It's earlier than most people call me," she said. "So it went through my head, 'I wonder if that's the U.S. Ski Team.' Ah, probably not." When she saw that the call was from Pete Vordenberg, head coach for the Olympic cross-country team, the question that came to mind was simple -- good news or bad? The last time Vordenberg had called, a week ago, he left a message to return the call. When Brooks, 27, did so, Vordenberg told her she didn't make the team but needed to stay ready in case additional spots became available. A new Olympic quota system links each country's team size to World Cup performance, and not all countries were expected to fill their quota. Teams like the United States might pick up additional spots. On Tuesday, there was no mystery in the message. Vordenberg offered congratulations. Brooks -- the middle-of-the-pack high school skier, the Whitman College athlete who never qualified for the NCAA Championships, the Alaska Pacific University coach who didn't start seriously training for an Olympic berth until late August -- is headed to the 20th Winter Olympiad. She joins six other Alaskans on the U.S. team. "We hugged and jumped up and down," Brooks said of her reaction with Whitney. "He's been absolutely phenomenal. He came really close to getting there twice himself, so it's nice he can share in it." The couple's celebration was intense but brief. A group of masters skiers Brooks trains for the APU Nordic Ski Center was waiting for her at Hilltop Ski Area, and Whitney, an Anchorage firefighter, was late for work himself. "I'm driving to practice right now," she said when a reporter called about 11:30 a.m. "I think I'm one of the few Olympians with a full-time job." But beginning today, she's on leave. Early this morning, Brooks will board a flight to Canada, bound for Canmore Nordic Center, east of Banff National Park in Alberta, for a week training on the trails used during the 1988 Winter Games. She'll join fellow Anchorage and APU Olympians Kikkan Randall and James Southam, as well as other U.S. Olympians, there. At 4,593 feet, Canmore offers altitude training before the Olympics, as well as a World Cup race on Feb. 5. All together, eight APU athletes are expected to compete in that World Cup event, Brooks said. "I'm so happy," she said "We're ecstatic," said husband Whitney. It beats the limbo she'd been in since the initial press conference announcing the U.S. team. The announcement followed Brooks' strong showing at the Conoco Phillips U.S. Cross Country Ski Championships at Kincaid, where she finished second and fourth behind Randall in two races. "We had to plan like I'm going -- but I wasn't really going," Brooks said. "It was everything, training, buying plane tickets, staying ready. Kind of surreal." Brooks said she knew the U.S. team was getting one more spot, but she didn't know whether she was next in line. It could get maddening -- "depending on the day and depending on my mood. "I didn't know where I stood. The thought was in my mind hundreds of times a day." Both Brooks and Garrott Kuzzy of Minnesota were officially added to the Olympic team Tuesday afternoon -- the two athletes APU coach Erik Flora predicted might get spots after the team was announced last week. Both were fifth on the national points lists. "Holly and Garrott had outstanding early-season results ... and we were excited today to be able to add them," said John Farra, the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association nordic director. Selection meant that Brooks could revel in a sweet mix of joy, relief, satisfaction and celebration at Hilltop as her APU pupils -- first the masters and then the juniors -- exchanged hugs and congratulations with their coach. "Go Holly" headbands were in evidence. After so many close calls, it was time to celebrate. Last spring, Brooks lost the biggest ski marathon in the country by a ski tip. In July, she led the celebrated Mount Marathon race in Seward before collapsing on the descent and winding up in the hospital with an IV drip in her arm. Years earlier, her husband had lost out on his Olympic bids by what some considered the cruel discretion of coaches. To narrowly miss again might have been too much to bear. She's glad she'll never find out. Instead, as the sun started to dip below the spruce trees lining the Hilltop trails late Tuesday afternoon, Brooks turned and did what has become so familiar since she moved to Anchorage in 2004. She skated off on the hard-packed snow for another workout with skiers eager to learn.