Catherine Skinner prepares differently to most professional athletes

YOU probably didn’t know Catherine Skinner before the Aussie shooter won gold on Monday, so it’s less likely you know how she eats.

Catherine Skinner is an Olympic champion.

HANDS up if you’d heard of Catherine Skinner before Monday morning.

What? Nobody? Hold on, it looks like there are at least a couple of raised arms up the back there.

We can’t blame you if the only Skinner you knew before the Olympics was the school principal from the Simpsons — the 26-year-old is an unheralded name in a sport that doesn’t exactly garner the attention of Australia’s sporting public.

But all that changed when she won gold — Australia’s third of the Games — in the women’s trap shooting event in Rio. That made her the first Aussie woman to win a shooting gold medal since Suzie Balogh in 2004.

She didn’t even look like getting anywhere near the podium in the qualifying stages, but she recovered — overcoming Canada’s Cynthia Meyer in a shoot-off — to grab a spot in the six-person semi-final and ultimately outclass the rest of the field.

While plenty of athletes sacrifice everything — be it their social lives, favourite food, or simply the chance to live normal lives like everyone else their age — for the shot at glory once every four years, Skinner doesn’t exactly fit that mould.

While there’s no doubt she’s put every ounce of effort into training to be the best shooter in the world, it probably helps hers is a sport not overly reliant on needing a meticulous diet to get the body as close to perfection as possible.

Skinner has ice running through her veins.

Skinner shot a personal best a few years ago after eating a pint of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream for dinner the night before. Professional sportsmen and women are creatures of habit, and if they have success once, they’ll often try and replicate the exact same steps every time they compete after that.

So, for the girl from Victoria, ice cream for dinner equals shooting glory.

Speaking on Triple M’s The Grill Team after her win on Monday, Skinner said she had to alter that routine slightly when she couldn’t get her hands on some Ben and Jerry’s in Rio.

“I had to adapt a little bit because I did my personal best a few years ago after I ended up eating an entire pint of Ben and Jerry’s the night before for dinner,” Skinner said. “So last night I had to sneak over to the McDonald’s and get a big McFlurry.”

Ben and Jerry’s and McDonald’s are undoubtedly thrilled with her revelation — you can’t buy that sort of publicity.

Unusual eating habits tend to crop up at the Olympics — Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt reportedly ate approximately 100 chicken McNuggets a day at the Beijing Games in 2008, and cyclist Ryan Bayley had a penchant for munching on KFC before races in 2004.

We’re not sure if aspiring Olympians everywhere will necessarily follow Skinner’s lead, but still, how good would it be to have an excuse to have ice cream for dinner? We guess you still need some of those other minor details to have any chance at making it at the elite level too — ambition, talent, work ethic and the like — which Skinner clearly has in buckets.

Hands up if you’re an Olympic gold medallist.

A gold medal seemed a world away as she struggled through the early stages, but she knew her training had prepared her for this exact moment.

“I thought I was out of it 50 targets into the qualification, so just making the final was a bit of a win,” Skinner told The Grill Team.

“The pressure’s amazing, just trying to remember to breathe is a good start.

“For us so much of it comes from reaction time and seeing the target right at the beginning. That comes from practice and is a learnt skill.

“It’s indescribable what it’s like to be on that podium and hear the anthem, it’s just winning all over.”

Speaking on Melbourne radio this morning, Skinner’s father Neil said the whole family was nervous about how she’d go given she took a break from the sport last year to finish her studies.

“She certainly made us sweat for a while,” Neil said. “We thought she would be in amongst it, she’s been ranked pretty highly in the world, number eight last year. But then she took six months off to finish her chemical engineering degree at RMIT and it took a little while to get back into this year.

“So we haven’t really been sure how she’s rated, we knew she could be amongst it on the day if everything went along.”

Her mum was able to celebrate with her over in Rio, but Neil is in Australia. Appearing on Channel Seven’s Sunrise program after her victory, she gave him a shout out: “Hi Dad, I did it.”