Rotter takes gold at Junior Olympics

Carson City's Corrinne Rotter is just 14-years-old, but she's already going to be making her first appearance in international competition.

Rotter won three medals in alpine skiing, including one gold, at the recent Junior III Western Region Junior Olympics at Big Sky, Montana. In the process, Rotter qualified for a prestigious international event in Whistler, Canada.

She and five other skiers from the 13-14-year-old age group will represent Team USA in the competition, which will feature some of the best 13 and 14-year-old skiers in the world. The event will be held April 4-6.

"It's going to be cool to actually represent the United States," said Rotter about her first international competition.

Rotter, a freshman at Reno's Sage Ridge School, said her goal is to "hopefully represent the U.S. well." She said she had no specific goals.

"There's no pressure going into this," she said. "I'm not expecting anything huge."

Rotter will compete in the slalom, giant slalom and super giant slalom at Whistler. At the Western Region event, Rotter won the slalom and placed third in the super G and giant slalom.

Rotter began series started with a one minute, 30 second Super G race in which she secured a bronze medal. Immediately after the race with not much time to celebrate, Rotter warmed up for the slalom.

On day two, Rotter gave her best effort and claimed the overall win for the slalom race. After the race she got the chance to receive her gold medal 600 skiers, parents, U.S. ski team coaches and ski company sponsors.

Day three of competition was the giant slalom race and after the first run of two, Rotter was in second place. The weather didn't cooperate for her second run and even with high uphill winds she still claimed third place overall.E

Her three results earned her second place overall in the competition, only 10 points out of first. She was the only female athlete at the competition to stand on the podium for all three events.

"It was very exciting, it was a lot of fun," Rotter said. "It was a pretty successful weekend. I went into it just wanting to do my beste and have fun.

"My basic goal was to win one of the events. I got that, so I was pretty happy."E

The gold medal win also secured a spot for Rotter in 2003-2004 Federation of International Skiing, also known as FIS, racing season. Rotter will be among only few girls in the United States to have an opportunity to compete at any FIS level race in the future.E

She has also be recognized by the United States Ski Team as one of the best female ski racers in her age group.

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