FEDERAL WAY, Wash. — Federal Way’s Corinne Stoddard is one of the best female short track speedskaters in the world.
"I was really intense as a child and really competitive and really, really stubborn, and I never liked to lose, and I'm still like that," said Stoddard.
“It's just her attitude, and the way she approaches skating is just incredible,” said Miguel Jose, founder of the National Speedskating Circuit. "She's fearless."
Jose, who is a coach for Team Extreme at Pattison’s West Skating Center, started working with Stoddard at a young age.
“I could have told you Corie is going be Olympian the first time I'd seen her compete, like dead serious," said Jose.
Now 20, Stoddard started roller-skating when she was just 6 years old. She first learned at All Saints School in Fife.
“She was in kindergarten, and the PE teacher decided to bring in skates for a month for gym class, and she just loved it. She just absolutely loved it," said Vicki Stoddard.
A few years later, she started training and competing at Pattison’s West.
“I wasn't that great when I was like super young, but I just really liked skating, and it didn't matter to me that I was losing in the races because I was just really loving to skate, which was strange for me because I hate losing,” said Stoddard. “I really liked skating, so I just stuck with it.”
Then she started winning National, European, and even World Championship titles. But inline wasn’t the only sport Stoddard was competing in.
“The first time I met her on the ice was in summer in 2011," said Chang Lee.
Lee is the head coach for the Puget Sound Speedskating Club in Tacoma.
“No matter how hard the practice was, she was always ready for the next step," Lee recalled.
Between ice and inline skating, keeping a balance wasn’t easy.
“Inline made me the ice skater I am, and I mean, ice also helped with my inline because it made me more efficient with my skating,” said Stoddard. “You can be out there and either half-ass it or you can give it your all, and that's the big difference between the top skaters and the ones that are not on the top."