Swider-Peltz Is Passing Torch to Her Daughter

Before her daughter went to the starting line Tuesday at the U.S. Olympic speedskating trials, Nancy Swider-Peltz Sr. planted a kiss on her cheek and reminded her to react quickly to the starter’s gun.

Then she lined up next to her 14-year-old daughter, also named Nancy, and outraced her at 500 meters around the Olympic Oval.

Wearing a gold skin suit she’d last worn at the 1980 Lake Placid Games, 45-year-old Nancy Sr.--known as Big Nancy--won their pairing in 42.83 seconds. Nancy Jr., called Little Nancy, was timed in 42.94 seconds, a career best. Mother outskated daughter again in the 1,000, although they were in different pairs.

“Do you look at me as a coach or a mom when we’re on the ice?” Big Nancy asked her offspring.

Answered Little Nancy, “As someone to beat.”

Big Nancy, a member of the U.S. Olympic speedskating teams in 1976, ‘80, ’84 and ‘88, knows triumphs like Tuesday’s will soon end. Her gangly daughter will soon have the leg strength to leave Mom behind, and when she does, no one will be prouder than Big Nancy, who coaches her and her friend, Margaret Crowley, in Wheaton, Ill.

“Next year, I’ll do parts of their workouts with them, but it will be impossible to keep up,” said Big Nancy, who has participated in eight Olympic trials and recalled nursing her daughter at the 1987 event. “I got my pulse almost to 190. At my age, that’s called ‘tachycardia.’ They’re going to be going much faster soon. I’m pushing my limit. They’re improving.”

Neither mother nor daughter has a chance to make the Salt Lake City Olympic team, but that’s not why they’re here. This is a learning experience, for each.

Big Nancy was 12th of 20 in the first of two 500-meter races, and Little Nancy was 14th. Mom was 10th in the 1,000, with a time of 1:23.99, and daughter was 14th, at 1:25, another personal-best.

“When I heard we were paired, I was like, ‘Oh, no,”’ Little Nancy said. “But I knew it was going to be a good thing. It’s to my benefit.”

Big Nancy, who has never dragged out tapes of her Olympic exploits because “they’re not good teaching films,” said she’s picking up tips here on how to be a better coach. “Seeing the best athletes in the world, watching and talking, I’m always picking their minds,” she said.