Finally, it was time to celebrate.
And that's what Bountiful's Holly Cook, her family and coach did Saturday night in Halifax, Nova Scotia.And why not?
How often does a skater in her first appearance at the world championships place in the top three?
"People can't remember that ever happening," said Holly's elated coach, Kris Sherard, in a phone conversation from Halifax.
It was a Cinderella story for Cook from the start of the World Figure Skating Championships - only the slipper never came off.
She had surprised the skating community by finishing third in the nationals in her home state last month. Surely, the experts figured, her inexperience and pressure of world competition would get to her. It didn't.
She was solidly in fourth after the compulsories Wednesday and then made her biggest move Friday, moving up to second with a strong showing in the original program as favorite Jill Trenary faltered, falling to fourth.
But the long program or freestyle, which accounts for 50 percent of the total score, is Cook's weakest, and it was expected she would need to skate well and get some help from some other skaters - namely teammate and roommate Kristi Yamaguchi - to stay in the top three.
She did and she did.
One thing Sherard didn't want her doing was worrying about how the other skaters were doing, which was a difficult task since Cook was the last performer.
"She stayed in the back, keeping limbered up," Sherard said.
And she was limber and strong enough to skate another solid program - "She didn't skate the long as well as she can skate it, but she did enough to stay in there," Sherard said.
Cook was consistent. Even when not competing.
"She had a lot of good practices this week. Judges come to all the practices at worlds," Sherard said.
The consistency brought her the bronze medal. While the most dazzling skater, Midori Ito of Japan, was bouncing from 10th (in compulsories) to first (short and freestyle), Cook was fourth (compulsories), third (short) and fourth (freestyle).
The skater who was in the best position to knock Cook out of the medals was Yamaguchi, who was fifth going into the final event. She, like Ito, is known for spectacular routines.
Yamaguchi, 18, had a program with seven triple jumps, difficult enough that she could have won a medal if she had skated well. But she fell on her first two jumps. She regained her composure after the disastrous start to place third in the freestyle program.
Cook needed to skate basically a clean program to ensure herself of a medal, and she did.
"She started to go down on her last triple, but she caught herself before she went down. She also doubled one of the jumps that was supposed to be a triple," Sherard said.
But the 5.6s she received on the judges' cards were enough to give her fourth on the long program and third overall for the bronze medal.
Cook will not be coming home immediately. Because of her finish she's now part of a world championship skating tour that will go to 25 cities.
And then?
"She's not reached her peak in the long program . . . I think Holly can only get better," Sherard said.
Cook, 19, will probably make her decision in the next month as to whether to continue the arduous training to try for the 1992 Olympic Team.
Her finish at nationals and worlds will undoubtedly figure into it.