Last I left off it was two days to go until my competition and the nerves where starting to set in. The morning of the competition I can not even describe the feeling I woke up with. It was the most stomach turning nervous feeling I have ever felt before. As I struggled to stomach a bowl of cereal and banana at breakfast I sat in silence in the dining hall at the village. All of the hard work leading up to this point flashed through my head and I found myself thinking "this day is finally here".

I loaded onto the bus and started out to the range on a ride that seemed to come to an end way to quickly. With just an hour of prep time once I was at the range I new it was either now or quit and wait another 4 years...obviously the later was not an option.

As I walked out to the field I told myself to just run my routine like in practice, focus on the things I could control and to have fun. I put my headphones back on and started jamming out to Texas country artist Miranda Lambert. No matter how high the volume went on my iPod the nerves would not go away so we went to plan B which is the dancing :)

As I walked out onto the line I was singing my favorite Miranda song and tapping my foot and bobbing my head... I'm sure I looked funny and as people looked at me wondering what I was doing I just smiled and kept singing in my head and tapping my toe.

Everything went too fast and dreadfully slow all at the same time from there. I knew if I could get past the first round or 25 targets without having a breakdown I should be ok for the rest of the match. After having a strong first round hitting 23/25 it was a gut wrenching hour wait for the second round to start. Again 23/25, I knew I was hanging in close, all I needed was one more then the final. Another long wait then again 23/25, I was in the final!

Now came the hard part, waiting 3 hours for the final and not psyching yourself out in the meantime.

As the final started I just tried to stick with the same plan I had during the match but unfortunately although I felt just about the same the pressure and game has changed and after missing quite a few by about half way through I decided to make a risky move and change everything to try and move from 6^th place into medal contention. As I changed stations with 5 shots to go I looked up at the score board and saw I was two targets out of medal contention I new I needed to hit these last 5 targets if I had any chance of moving into a tie breaker. Five broken targets later I looked up and saw the shooter after me needed to miss her last target to let 4 of us into a shoot off for bronze, seconds later I watched her target fly away unbroken and new this was my shot.

Moving into a sudden death shoot off the four of us drew straws for position, as I drew the longest straw I new I was last.... A very high pressure position to shoot. As the target was shown we all lined up waiting for our turn to shoot I said a quick prayer and asked God for the strength I new I would need. After that things started to happen really fast. I first girl shot and missed, then the second and then the third. It was my turn and all I had to do to win a bronze medal was to hit one target.... I would say it was the hardest target of my life. As I stepped onto the line me knees started to shake, my hands were sweaty and I felt like I had barley enough strength to hold up my gun. As I prepared for my shot I said another quick prayer and before I new it everything was over. I had broken my target and I was an Olympic medalist.

Thank you all for your support!

Dare to dream!

Corey Cogdell  is a freelance contributor for teamusa.org. This feature was not subject to the approval of the United States Olympic Committee or any National Governing Bodies.