When Olympic short track speedskater Katherine Reutter’s mother, Beth, returned to her University office Monday, it still hadn’t sunk in.
Her daughter just won a silver and a bronze medal at the Vancouver Olympics last week, and she was giving her $25,000 in winnings to her parents to remodel their Champaign home.
“It’s still pretty surreal,” Beth said.
“I thought I would come to work and get caught up, and I’ve yet to hardly get anything done. It’s just been amazing, the outpouring of congratulations and the things that people are saying about Katherine and the coverage they saw on TV.”
At 21 years old, Reutter won a silver medal in the 1,000 meters Friday and a bronze medal as a member of the women’s 3000-meter relay team Wednesday.
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The American team of Reutter, Allison Baver, Alyson Dudek and Lana Gehring finished the relay in fourth place, but was bumped up to the podium after South Korea was disqualified for clicking skates with China after an exchange with just five laps to go.
“There’s the victory and the glory,” Reutter told the Associated Press after the race. “This may not have been the most glorious, but we were victorious.”
Reutter’s individual silver medal was the first for the U.S. women’s short track program since 1994, and she made sure the world knew.
The Champaign native took a victory lap on the ice draped in the American flag, shouting with excitement to the cheering crowd.
“I feel complete,” Reutter told the Associated Press after the medal ceremony. “I don’t plan on taking off the medal or the flag for three days.”
Her parents and grandparents in the stands at the Pacific Coliseum were just as elated.
“When Katherine made her final for the silver, she was the only North American on the line, and so just to have the majority of the crowd screaming for her and relishing her win, I can’t even describe it,” Beth said.
“Then when that silver came, it was pure raw emotions all spilling out. It was exciting that it finally happened, and it was unbelievable at the same time.”
Champaign Centennial High School football coach Mike McDonnell, who mentored Reutter when she attended Centennial, said he saw a sense of relief from Reutter after she came away with two medals.
McDonnell took part in all of the action, including attending a party with Reutter’s family that Team USA threw her following her second-place finish Friday night.
“It’s a dream come true for her and all the rest of us that believed in her,” McDonnell said. “She sat in my office about five to six years ago, she was probably 15 or 16, and she said, ‘I’m going to the Olympics. Will you come?’ … And now, she did it.”
After coming from finishing in last place at the 2006 Olympic Trials to winning two medals in Vancouver, Reutter is here to stay.
“She’s committed for 2014,” Beth said.
“Another country tried to negotiate her coach (Jae Su Chun) away, and he made the decision to stay based on the agreement that if Katherine stayed, then he would stay.”
