COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — The United States will send just one women’s skeet shooter to the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.
The way U.S. shotgun coach Bret Erickson sees it, that spot will come down to five women.
Port Angeles 18-year-old Jaiden Grinnell is the youngest of all of them.
“No doubt she’s probably one of the most talented young skeet shooters that we have,” Erickson said.
“She’s just a fantastic gun pointer . . . a natural. You have to have that to get to the level that she’s at.
“What I like about her more than anything is that she just has a winning attitude.
“She wants to win as much as anyone.”
That much was apparent when Grinnell became the first woman to win the state International Skeet Championships at the tender age of 14.
Having trained under former Olympic gold medalist Matt Dryke at Sunnydell Shooting Grounds in Sequim for two years before that, she lapped the field.
Her closest challenger finished 17 targets behind.
That was just the beginning for Grinnell, who in four short years has won a junior national title, shot her way on to the U.S. world championship team and earned a spot at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.
Now as a permanent resident at the training center, she runs into the likes of Olympic legends Apolo Anton Ohno and Michael Phelps.
“It gets pretty intimidating,” said Grinnell, who has lived in a dorm at the center since June 2009.
“I was already used to being away from home, but it was really hard knowing I wasn’t going to be home the next week.”
Added her father, Kurt, “She’s had a lot to adjust to. Most people at 17 aren’t quite ready to make that leap.”
It would have been easier if getting used to living away from home was her only challenge.
Yet Grinnell also spent part of that year battling Graves’ disease, an autoimmune disorder that leads to an overactive thyroid and up-and-down heart rate.
Skeet shooters shoot dozens of flying clay targets in a competition, with the difference at the world class level often coming down four or five targets.
So anything that affects the steadiness of one’s hands even slightly can mean the difference between first and fifth place.
Grinnell’s resting heart rate reached as high as 110 beats per minute when the disease was first discovered. Whenever she received too much medication, it dropped as low as 43.
“With a heart rate too high, I had trouble sleeping because I was never tired, and when it was too low I was always tired,” Grinnell said.
“It was hard to deal with, but now I’m doing pretty well since surgery.”
In fact, she’s won both matches she’s competed in since having her thyroid removed in December.
That included a victory at USA Shooting’s spring selection match in Fort Benning, Ga., which qualified her for a World Cup match in Beijing later this month.
Such events are extremely important for Grinnell’s London 2012 hopes, since shooters can now qualify for the Olympics by medaling at World Cup matches.
It takes 45 points to automatically qualify (gold is worth 15, silver 10 and bronze 5).
If that doesn’t happen, the shooters will compete in two 250-target selection matches prior to the Games.
“Basically, I’m going to have to shoot my little heart out and hope for the best,” said Grinnell. “Since I didn’t do so well last year it kind of sacrificed this year.
“It will be harder, but I still have time.”
Does she ever.
Grinnell is the youngest of USA shooting’s top Olympic hopefuls.
Her main competition is a 19-year-old (Caitlin Connor), 20-year-old (Amber English), 25-year-old (Haley Dunn) and 30-year-old (Kim Rhode).
If she can’t catch up to them during this four-year cycle, there is always the next one for Rio de Janeiro 2016.
“I think by 2016 she will definitely be the front-runner,” Erickson said. “The neat thing about it is she’s in the hunt [right now] and she’s not even [19]. So she’s got a long career ahead.”
Erickson said that men traditionally peak in their mid-30s in skeet shooting, but “with the women it’s not quite that old.”
“I don’t know if there is [any specific age],” he said, “but it tends to be older than most sport. It is very physical, but it’s much more of a mental game.
“Maturity and experience mean a lot.”
Grinnell is getting that by the boatload in Colorado.
She is one of three Olympic hopefuls – Connor and English being the other two — who train daily at the complex.
During a typical day she will wake up, grab a bite to eat and be out on the range by 8:30 a.m.
After coming back in to work on school work — Grinnell takes online classes through Peninsula College and Port Angeles High School — she might head back out again.
Sometimes she spends eight-hour days at the range in an attempt to simulate World Cup matches.
And on the weekends?
“Most of the time we’ll get bored and go out and play a little bit at the range anyway,” she said.
“It’s not as boring as it might sound, though. We entertain ourselves pretty well.”
Grinnell is set to graduate with her class this spring in Port Angeles with a 3.6 grade-point average.
She hopes to study for a future doctorate in veterinary medicine at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs after that.
“I’ve always grown up with dogs and horses and cows and pigmy goats and all kinds of stuff,” said Grinnell, who was involved in 4-H Club for eight years.
“I’ve always really liked being around animals and working with them, so I figure I might as well make a career out of it.”
Preferably, that would come after she has an Olympic medal or two around her neck, beginning with London.
“There’s a lot of girls ahead of her [competing for the Olympics] that have a ton of experience, but she’s in the hunt, and it’s just because of that winning attitude,” Erickson said.
“That’s what’s gotten her there earlier.”
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Sports Reporter Matt Schubert can be reached at 360-417-3526 or at matt.schubert@peninsuladailynews.com.