Behind the scenes Sports Photography Shoot | Olympic Speed Skater: Katherine Reutter

I'd highly recommend becoming familiar with one of the coolest and most underrated Olympic sports,
short track speed skating prior to the Olympics in just 7 months. While you're at it, check out
Katherine Reutter and her story during the upcoming 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games
(Winter). She is young, energetic, already a champion and super fun to work with.
Prior to our shoot she had put in a seriously long and painful workout and still came strong
with lot's of energy for the photos. Go Katherine!! We'll be pulling for you. Also a little shout out
to friends Jason and Ty Fredericks (w/ odd animation, Justin Thorstrom, Stephanie Winzeler and
Nate Biddle for producing, assisting and helping direct the shoot. And a special thanks to Jason
Thompson for filming and editing this short clip! (Check out J's grass routes food show for some
tasty eats here)

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This article just popped up in the News-Gazette.com featuring a nice little Q&A about Katherine's

journey to the olympics along with one of the portraits from our shoot.

hi! my name is Katherine Reutter

and over the next several months I’ll

be telling you about my experiences as

an Olympic hopeful preparing for my

first Olympic Games.

i’ve been a competitive short-track

speedskater since 2005, but this year

is my first real shot at showing the

world what I’ve got on an Olympic

level. This year is very special to me

because my goal in skating is not to

go to the Olympics — or even to bring

home a medal — but to be the great-

est short tracker this world has ever

seen. The 2010 Games in Vancouver,

British Columbia, will be a monumen-

tal step toward achieving my goal.

preparation for these games

started many, many years ago. I first

moved to a training center in 2005,

when I was 16. I was the youngest and

a rookie among a group of veteran,

world-class athletes. I started training

at the same level they were at, going

from less than 10 hours per week to

about eight hours a day. With the extra

workload and my determination to

finish everything, the inevitable hap-

pened. After six months I was over-

trained and burned out with just a few

weeks to go before the 2006 Olympic

Trials.

at olympic Trials, the first day is a

nine-lap time trial. The top 16 times

advance to compete for a spot on the

team. I was 17th by mere tenths of a

second. This was the beginning of my

journey toward learning everything

I could about this sport and how to

excel at it.

since then, every day has been an

opportunity to learn more. I’ve made

quite a few mistakes along the way,

but with the 2010 Olympic Trials 21/2

months away I feel like now it’s just

fine-tuning before I’m ready to show

the world what I’ve got.

summer training is like four-

months-of-hell week. Since the

beginning of May we’ve been doing

high-volume and intensity training (six

to eight hours a day) to build a base

to last us the whole season. Once the

competition season starts, the team

travels abroad for two weeks every

other month. Between tapering for rac-

es and recovering from flights and time

changes, there is very little time to

build strength in season so the name

of the game is maintenance.

The olympic Trials are in septem-

ber, which is four months earlier than

the U.S. Championships in a normal

year. This means all of our volume and

strength training is crammed into the

first two months of training so that we

can peak in September.

Training began in mid-april, and

our base training cycle is coming to

an end this week. Part of me is grate-

ful for the two months less of exhaus-

tion, but the other part of me wants to

keep going.

performance for the whole sea-

son is based on how strong you get

in the summer. I’ve been fortunate

enough that I’ve already reached the

point in my training where I peaked at

last year, but that makes me wonder

how much stronger I could be if I had

just a few more months to prepare.

Either way, I’ve done everything I can

to make training optimal every day

this summer so I can start my season

knowing there’s nothing more I had to

give.

as we enter into our preparation

cycle for olympic Trials and the

olympic season, I’ll keep you updated

on training, health and life in general

in the world of Olympic living. Kath-

erinereutter.com will also be up and

running soon if you’d like to check out

more frequent updates online.