Don VanLandingham of Ellijay is on pins and needles during the current fortnight of the Winter Olympics. His granddaughter, Corinne ‘Corie’ Stoddard, is on skates as a world class short-track speedskater competing on the American team.
It’s a given that the Olympics are intensively competitive as athletes vie to earn a gold, silver or bronze medal. However, with contestants tightly bunched together, short track is risky — Stoddard fell during her first Winter Olympics four years ago and suffered a broken nose.
“A lot of times there are crashes and stuff going on during the racing, so it can be pretty hazardous,” said VanLandingham, a retired forensic accountant and book author. He told the story of how his daughter Vicki and her husband Paul, helped shepherd Corie along the way. The couple are now in Milano Cortina, Italy, to watch their daughter’s quest for a medal.
“She’s been competing since age 7 in Tacoma, Wash., beginning with in-line skating (also known as rollerblading),” he said. “Tacoma is a real hot spot for that, but when she discovered that it was not an event in the Olympics she decided she would switch to ice when she was about 11. For her senior year in high school, her parents allowed her to transfer to Salt Lake City, Utah, where she was housed in the same facility as the other U.S. Olympic skaters.”
VanLandingham said Corie was “just glad to be there” during her first Olympics in China in 2022, but now “she’s determined she wants to really compete.”
Stoddard is a three-time world medalist in short track speedskating, according to the teamusa.com website. Other sources note she is ranked number two in the world in the sport; several videos of Stoddard giving interviews can be found online. She will be competing in five races at Milano Cortina: the 500-meter, 1,000-meter, 1,500-meter and two relay races — a mixed relay with two-men and two-women teams and an all-women relay.
“The difference between long-track and short-track is that in long-track you race against the clock and in short-track you race against each other,” VanLandingham explained. “In the Olympics there will be quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals, and then finals–A (first- and second-place finishers from the semis) and finals–B (third- and fourth-place finishers).”
The women’s short-track schedule includes several races on the days of Feb. 10, 12, 14, 16, 18 and 20. Although he’s not traveling to Italy, VanLandingham attended one of Corie’s races in Montreal in 2017, and also the World Cup races in Salt Lake City after the 2022 Olympic Games.
“She’s had a lot of success this year,” he pointed out. “Last year in the fall she was on the podium nine times — four times as the second-place finisher and the rest of those times as the third-place finisher. She did not finish in first place last year, but the year before she finished in first place one time. She races against the very best the world has to offer, and because she was on the podium so many times they now rank her number two in the world. And that’s not just her granddaddy talking — you can look it up on the internet!”
Corie Stoddard will finish her college education — she has two years of college under her belt and wants to one day own her own business — after finishing her racing career.
“I train about four to five hours a day, six days a week,” she responded in an email from Milano Cortina. “We are tapering right now for the games. I’ve had some health struggles that impacted my training, I think that’s what has impacted me the most. I’ve always been a competitive person with a drive to be the best at everything I do, so I think that’s what motivates me during competitions.”
While Paul and Vicki Stoddard are in Italy cheering on Corie, they’ll undoubtedly know Don and his wife, Linda VanLandingham, will also be pulling for her right here in Ellijay.
“I’ve been looking forward to this for four years!” VanLandingham said.
**According to Yahoo Sports on Tuesday morning in regard to a 500-meter heat, "Corrine Stoddard was another contender for the U.S., but her run ended in disaster. It was a close battle in heat alongside Xinran Wang (China), Rika Kanai (Japan) and Aurelie Leveque (France), but on the third lap, Stoddard fell and caused several skaters to also hit the ground. She had a chance to recover, but she stumbled again to essentially take herself out of the race."