By: Katherine Reutter

By: Katherine Reutter

By: Katherine Reutter

By: Katherine Reutter

Say hello to Katherine Reutter, a short-track speedskater with gold-medal potential. The Champaign native has been kind enough to give us an inside look at her quest for Olympic glory by writing a monthly diary for The News-Gazette. Her third entry:

September 2009

The countdown is at an end!

Olympic Trials start this week in Marquette, Mich., and by Saturday the U.S. short-track speedskating team for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics will be named.

Stress levels have been rising over the past few weeks, mostly resulting in a night out with friends or an afternoon by myself to relax, but a few have resulted in ending workouts early.

Transitioning from volume to intensity on the ice is never easy, but this year my body seems to be in quite a bit of shock about it. It all started about three weeks ago when I could never get my hips and low back to stay loose. I chalked it up to stress and got a few extra massages, but then two weeks ago my hips couldn´t take it anymore and I got a strain in my left hip flexor.

 A few days of even less volume training and I was able to get back into my routine until one week ago, when my left hamstring had enough of overcompensating for my weak hip flexor and it strained. Neither incident is terribly serious, but it makes me wonder how I went through all that training all summer long and now, as the days are getting shorter and I´m feeling more rested, my body is deciding it´s had enough.

But obstacles play a part in everyone´s life and the best way to deal with them is to look back at all the other times you were sure your life was coming to an end and see that with a bit of hard work anything can be overcome.
 It makes me think back to when I first started skating and all that I´ve overcome since then. I learned to skate just as soon as I could walk, on a pair of quad roller skates that fit over even the tiniest toddler shoe. I loved visiting my grandparents´ house in Cissna Park because that´s where my skates were, and I loved to go there and play. When I was old enough to fit into a pair of ice skates, my mom took me to a mother/daughter learn-to-skate class, and from there I went into figure skating.

I was a figure skater for less than a year before I first tried speedskating. I didn´t have very much fun figure skating .. I just wanted to go fast! The parent of one of the kids in the local speedskating club saw me racing around and suggested to my parents that I come to one of their practices My first day there every single coach and adult asked me if I had been a figure skater before. I would always reply, "Yes," and add shockingly, "How did you know?!" They all responded that I skated like one and from that day a fire was lit under my butt to skate like a speedskater.

Since then I´ve worked through obstacles such as knee surgery, disqualifications and just plain not being strong enough. My family has had to deal with many obstacles together, such as what to do when I had reached the point where my dad (and my coach) had taught me all he knew. How far could we drive for ice time when there was only one hour per week at the club in Champaign? When is it OK to let your little girl go to pursue her dream, even if it means moving 10 hours away to live in college dorms at the age of 16?

All of these obstacles have been worked through and have all turned out for the best. Hopefully there aren´t too many things that get in my way as I prepare for the Olympics, but the last few weeks have proven that obstacles always exist.

I truly believe, however, that obstacles are only in the way for people who don´t want it badly enough. So keep your eye on the goal and you won´t even see the obstacles in your way.

Diary No. 1 - link

Diary No. 2 - link