By Madhuri Dey
Dec. 15, (THAINDIAN NEWS) Katherine Reutter will hopefully make it to her first Olympic speed skating team from the United States. At 21, she is one of the most promising speed skaters in the country’s team. She burst into the speed skating scene at the age of 17 in 2005. She participated in three world championships and emerged the winner. Two years later, she participated in the senior category, in her first World Cup, and took home the gold medal. So far, she has taken part in two World Championships, and had ranked in the top five in both.

At present, in the 500m category, she ranks fifth. Her rank is sixth in the 1000m category. She admits that her biggest dream is to be the winner at the Winter Olympics that will be held next year at Beijing. She describes her dream in vivid detail: herself standing at the podium, with the gold medal around her neck, and the national anthem going on in the background. She loved to sing the “star spangled banner”, but is not allowed to any more after an incident few years back, when she slipped and was disqualified right after crooning the anthem that is sung before every match.

Katherine Reutter knows that achieving her dream of winning in the Olympics short track speed skating event is not going to come easy. She will be pitted against Meng Wang of China, someone she had competed against thrice before. Meng Wang, as Katherine Reutter herself has learned through experience, is a tough competitor, and has won in two World Championships.