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Eagle RiverÕs Corey Cogdell takes aim at a bird fired during the International Style Olympic Trials at Kerrville, Texas. Cogdell, 21, won the event and will be one of the athletes representing the United States in the event at the Beijing Olympics in August.
PHOTO COURTESY OF COREY COGDELL
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Remembering the Alaska roots of his daughter, Dick Cogdell was quick to use the recent sports exploit of two-time Yukon Quest and Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race winner Lance Mackey to characterize his daughter Corey's recent emergence as the U.S. Olympic team's only female trapshooter for the Beijing Olympics in August.
Corey Cogdell, 21, won the Olympic Trials event in Kerrville, Texas, March 9 through March 11 with an incredible come-from-behind win.
“She pulled a Mackey,” said Dick Cogdell, speaking of his daughter's stealth in claiming the country's top trapshooting distinction.
Trailing by eight shots, or targets, after the fall part of the two-stage trials, Cogdell, who moved to Eagle River from Chickaloon when she was 4, decided she would need to take drastic measures to make up lost ground on the field to claim the title.
Five weeks prior to the Olympic trials, she decided to go to Kerrville to train at the site of the event - referred to by her father as the Mackey deception.
“Just like Mackey bedding down for the night, making folks think he was going to sleep, then slipping away in the middle of the night,” he said.
“I knew that I was really needing to do something amazing to get back to the competition,” Corey Cogdell said.
So, without her free lodging and free food allowances of the Colorado Springs, Colo., Olympic Training Center, Cogdell spent five lonely weeks at the Kerrville venue. But the decision paid off quickly in the competition, as the first day with 75 targets on the schedule was held under cold, windy and dreary conditions.
“I could see them (the other women) all cold and shivering, all bundled up trying to keep warm,” Corey Cogdell said, adding she had shot in much worse conditions, down to negative temperatures at Birchwood Shooting Park in Chugiak and that the day presented a wonderful opportunity.
“When I woke up that day and saw that it was overcast, I knew that it was going to be my day, because I knew how to shoot in these conditions,” she said.
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Corey Cogdell, center, stands atop an Olympic Trials podium with a first-place finish in Trapshooting, flanked by second-place finisher Joette Dement, left, and third-place Susan Sledge, right. Cogdell will be the only U.S. woman in the Olympic trapshooting event at the Beijing Olympics.
photo by Mary Beth Vorwerk
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Cogdell blistered the field with a 10-point swing to go from eight targets down to two targets ahead.
The Alaskan continued the trend en route to a 12-target victory over the 275-target regimen.
For years, Corey Cogdell and her father have made sacrifices to further her career in the sport.
After being part of the Birchwood Babes, a group of girls shooting at the Birchwood Recreational Shooting Park, the pair decided to raise her commitment to the dream of competing in the Olympics. The then 19-year-old moved to Marble Falls, Texas, to live with her older sister, Tanis Cogdell, who was attending nursing school there. More importantly, she moved to the area to train at the Hill Country Sports Shooting Park, one of 12 public international-style trapshooting facilities in the country, in nearby Kerrville.
“I started working on the range, then shooting there,” she said by phone March 19.
Cogdell steadily rose through the shooting ranks until she was invited to live and train at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. The invitation came in 2006, with Cogdell moving west in April 2007.
“We were fully funded there — with free housing and free meals, with a stipend to cover a few other minor expenses,” she said.
However, since she was living out of state, she had to yield her right to her yearly Permanent Fund Dividend.
“That's something that we're trying to rectify,” said the 21-year old, with the help of her father and Rep. Nancy Dahlstrom. Dick Cogdell still maintains the family's physical residence in the shadows of the McDonald Recreation Center.
On the back of the application, Corey could not truthfully admit she was part of the U.S. Olympic team, as trapshooting does not establish an Olympic selection until the year of the event, although she has been on the U.S. National Team for the last two years.
“We estimate that we have put over $25,000 into Corey's shooting over the past few years,” said her father.
The investment has paid off, but required another inconvenience for Corey Cogdell.
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At rest following a shoot, Corey Cogdell relaxes with her broken-down rifle draped over her shoulders.
PHOTO COURTESY OF COREY COGDELL
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Now an Olympic team member, Corey Cogdell is eligible to receive this year's Permanent Fund and even delayed the application process until after the event.
She said other expenses are still ahead, with as much as $1,500 a day needed for her trip to Beijing.
Still, representing the United States and Alaska has been a goal she has always strived for.
“It has always been important for me to maintain my Alaskan residency. My driver's license is from Alaska, my home is Alaska, even though I have been training in Colorado. It's very important for me to remain an Alaskan,” she said.
Corey Cogdell said she is the first to realize there is more for her to accomplish.
“The work is not done. My goal is to go to Beijing and shoot to the best of my ability,” she said.
Tax-deductible contributions can be send to Corey Cogdell at 1 Olympic Plaza, Colorado Springs, CO 80909 and placed in the USA Shooting Athletic Trust, memo Cogdell.
Reach the reporter at news@alaskastar.com.
