Reutter ready for Olympic Trials

Salt Lake City, UT. With just two weeks to go until the 2010 U.S. Short Track Championships/Olympic Trials, Katherine Reutter (Champaign, IL) is ready to rock the ice in Marquette, Michigan on Sept. 8-12. As the 2008 and 2009 U.S. Ladies Short Track Champion, Reutter is the one to beat at the event where five men and five ladies will be selected to qualify for the 2010 Olympic Team.

Reutter, who won three silver medals in the 1500m during the 2008-2009 World Cup season, trains daily at the Utah Olympic Oval with her teammates including Olympians Apolo Anton Ohno, Anthony Lobello and Kimberly Derrick. Under the direction of National Short Track Head Coach Jae Su Chun, Reutter is mentally focused and physically prepared for the grueling Olympic Short Track Trials.

"I'm very confident," she says. "My coaches are amazing. I just want to follow my training program and the most important thing to me is peaking at exactly the right time." She hopes that peak performance time will arrive during the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver.

Reutter has been skating since she was 4 years old, growing up in the same hometown as five-time Olympic gold medalist Bonnie Blair. She is devoted to the small college town of Champaign and is an avid fan of the University of Illinois. "Champaign is awesome," Reutter says. "I've lived in the same house my whole life. My parents are very supportive."

At only 21, Reutter is working toward her Olympic goals and is not only striving to be her best, but is enjoying the journey along the way. "I'm very focused but trying to be very happy," Reutter says. "I don't make excuses. I make it happen."