Athlete Bios
Short-track speedskating
Reutter racing in Blair's shadow
Last Updated: Friday, February 5, 2010 | 12:12 PM ET
New York Times for CBC Sports
Katherine Reutter began figure skating at age 4, and by age 9, she was hitting the ice in speedskates. (Doug Benc/Getty Images)Katherine Reutter is the reigning three-time United States short-track speedskating champion.
Though only 21, Reutter has won 17 World Cup medals, set four American records and qualified for her first Olympics. Her growing résumé places Reutter among the contenders in Vancouver and also raises favourable comparisons to the speedskating legend Bonnie Blair.
Those comparisons seem inevitable, especially since Blair and Reutter both hail from Champagne, Ill. Blair is the most decorated American athlete ever at the Winter Olympics, having captured six medals and more gold medals (five) than any American woman in any sport.
Early in her career, Reutter has been performing and winning at a Blair-like pace. She burst onto the international short-track scene during the 2008-9 season, garnering six World Cup medals.
At the world championships in 2008, she won a bronze medal in the 3,000 meters. She also captured her second straight national championship that year. In Vancouver, she is a serious threat in the 1,500 (ranked No. 3 in the world) and in the 1,000 (ranked No. 2). Reutter is No. 3 over all heading into these Olympics.
Reutter attended her first figure skating class at age 4. But speed appeal to her more than style. By 9, she was lifting weights and competing in inline speedskating, but when the club in her hometown closed, she switched to short-track speedskating full time.
At 15, Reutter traveled with her parents twice a week, three hours each way, to St. Louis for advanced training. As her career started to take off, she moved away from home to train for the Olympics, and later, in 2007, she moved again, to Salt Lake City, to train with the national team. From that quick rise of Blair proportions, Reutter has now reached her sport's biggest stage. And in Vancouver, she would like to start accumulating medals at a pace similar to Blair's as well.
