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 sixth entry:

As many of you may have heard, Stephen Colbert of "The Colbert Report" is leading the Colbert Nation as the new sponsor of U.S. Speedskating. U.S. Speedskating's biggest sponsor, DSB Bank, recently went bankrupt, leaving us with zero dollars to fund an Olympic year.

Every season we need enough money to support athletes, travel to competitions and pay competition fees (including ice time), but these needs especially need to be met the year of the Olympic Games. This is the moment that everyone works so hard for, and there's no room to worry about financial problems.

Thanks to the generous donations from the Colbert Nation (anyone who is a fan of Stephen Colbert and supports his cause), these Olympic Games will be the optimal experience that my teammates and I have dreamed of; but I'm worried about next year.

After every Olympics, there is always major restructuring in U.S. Speedskating. This includes the loss of sponsors, a change in coaching staff and a general period of chaos as the next four years are planned. After the 2006 Games, U.S. Speedskating was completely bankrupt. My biggest fear is that next year, when it's time to start from scratch again, there won't be enough funding for our program to keep improving.

Unless there is a personal invite to train with the national team, there is no financial help given to any young Olympic hopeful with dreams of pursuing speedskating. Even with an invite, I was at the bottom of the financial barrel my first year of living in Salt Lake City. I was given a monthly stipend of $650 to cover my housing, utilities, meals and any other living expenses. Thanks to my family and many people who believed in me enough to help, I was able to get by but had to share living expenses with a roommate, take money out of my savings to pay for equipment and competitions, and seldom able to join my team for a night out to dinner or to the movies.

Others had to have jobs on top of our full-time training schedule. The Home Depot used to offer a program where athletes that maintained a certain international rank could work part-time hours for full-time pay and benefits. This was a fantastic program! However, after the 2008 Games in Beijing that sponsorship was lost. Even so, after putting in 20 hours a week (working at The Home Depot is no easy job) our athletes were exhausted. Summer training is the hardest training we do all year, and it lasts for four months. Then, with our competition schedule, working 20 hours a week is literally impossible to maintain.

So going into next year, with no reasonable job opportunities and a fear of a serious cut in funding, how will up-and-coming skaters have the chance to excel? In this economy, parents are unable to foot the bill anymore. The only way we have is to rely on our sport's national governing body and hope that things turn out OK. As an athlete, I am willing to give anything within my means to chase my dreams: physically, emotionally and financially. But I need help. Please support U.S. Speedskating, the United States Olympic Committee or any other dream in jeopardy of losing hope.

Donations can be made to U.S. Speed-skating through the Colbert Nation logo at http://www.usspeedskating.org/

Video of me promoting U.S. Speedskating on "The Colbert Report" can be found at colbertnation.com on the Dec. 14 show.

Being on "The Colbert Report" was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. It was great to represent my team in New York and let the nation know how excited we are to represent in Vancouver. Stephen on stage is completely different from Stephen backstage. He's a very generous and down-to-earth man who has so much fun playing his outrageous character onstage.

I was so nervous beforehand! Even though I spent the entire day meeting with media all over New York City, I couldn't stop pacing backstage. Once I got on stage, though, it was great fun talking to Stephen and even surprising him a bit with my thigh-signing request. I hope to have lots more experiences just like it.

Diary No. 1 - link

Diary No. 2 - link

Diary No. 3 - link

Diary No. 4 - link

Diary No. 5 - link