Dispatch article: Buckeye sticks to her guns for shot at Olympics

The Columbus Dispatch is reporting that a sophomore at The Ohio State University is working to secure her spot in the 2010 Olympics rifle competition.

From the article:

In high school, Amanda Furrer was a source of intrigue to her classmates, who knew her as "the shooter girl" for hitting the range both before and after class.

She missed about half her senior year while traveling from suburban Spokane, Wash., to international rifle competitions. At 17, she served as a first alternate for the 2008 Olympic team.

"That's almost unheard of," said Pat Cherry, her coach on the Ohio State rifle team. "I think she's almost a positive to be in the next Olympics, unless something unforeseen happens."

For now, the sophomore finance major is training intensely in shooting small-bore and air rifle for two teams.

On Sunday, Furrer will shoot in a coed match at OSU, where she's one of four women on the 13-person team.

Later that day, she'll fly to Rio de Janeiro for the Championship of the Americas, one of several tournaments in which she and the other women on the U.S. National Rifle Team will try to secure spots for the 2012 Olympics.

"That's just crazy" to do both competitions, she said.

"But I think the NCAA matches are really good training for the bigger matches."

According to the story, Furrer has been successful this year at both levels, winning the NRA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships and receiving gold medals in the World Shooting Championships and the National Junior Olympic Championships.

Furrer, who owned a BB gun before she started school, comes from a family of gun enthusiasts: Her older sister used to train with her; her father and older brother served in the Army; and her mom once received a pistol for Mother's Day.

Her dad begged the Spokane junior team to accept his 10-year-old, who was three years too young to compete, so she would stop putting dings in the garage door while practicing on a target.

As a teenager on the national junior team, she began lifting weights and doing yoga to improve her stability in holding the three shooting positions- standing, kneeling and prone (lying on her stomach).

Furrer has also worked with sports psychologists to learn relaxation techniques.

Each shot requires at least a minute of preparation, with Furrer taking deep breaths, looking above the target and closing her eyes to imagine hitting the bull's-eye before taking one of 60 shots.

As soon as she picks up the gun, however, she relaxes: She has recorded a lower heart rate while shooting.

"Once I start shooting, I'm just shooting," she told the Dispatch.. "If I get upset, I just go shoot. It helps me clear everything out of my head."