Northwestern sophomore Maggie Crowley is going to be an Olympian.
At 19 years, nine months and six days of age, she will be the youngest American speed skater at the Winter Olympics. The U. S. Ice Speed Skating Federation made it official last weekend when it announced the 2006 Olympic skating team.
Crowley knew she had made the team last December at a World Cup event in Torino, Italy. As Crowley watched other Olympic hopefuls slog around the Torino track, she realized that the time she posted in Calgary three weeks earlier – 4 minutes and 5 seconds, her personal best – was good enough to qualify her for the U.S. team in the ladies’ 3000-meter event.
She’ll compete on Feb. 12 in the Torino Games, which opens on Feb. 10.
“I don’t even think about it because it’s so exciting, because I’ve been dreaming about going to the Olympics since I was three and figure skating,” Crowley said. “I can’t think about it because I don’t think I could get anything done.”
Crowley, who currently lives in Evanston, is trying to devote all her time to skating. Her typical day begins at 6:30 a.m., when she goes to the ice rink for three hours. Several other times a week, she’ll take a second workout of strength and cardio training for two to three hours.
But it would be wrong to label her a jock who skated her way through high school. Her parents encouraged their two children to play sports, but they emphasized academics.
“We always said school first, that was the deal,” said Michael Crowley, Maggie’s father. “I can tell you it was very tough. It was a lot of work and a lot of very long days.”
Crowley began speed skating at age 14 and received training from Nancy Swider-Peltz, a four-time Olympian.
The U.S. speed skating national team contacted Crowley the summer after she graduated from high school in 2004, offering everything a young and endeavoring speed skater could want: free coaching, free housing, state of the art training facilities, bounteous ice time and a fast track to the 2006 Winter Olympics. All at the small price of one year of college.
For Crowley, the choice was easy.
She chose NU.
“I knew I wanted to go to college,” she said.
Crowley took four classes during Fall Quarter last year, then she took winter off before taking four courses in the spring. After training throughout last summer, she made her push for the 2006 Olympics last fall.
In a little more than a month, she’ll return to Torino to represent her country. Crowley doesn’t expect to be anywhere near medal contention – the world’s best speed skaters are in their late-20s and 30s – but she promises to make the most of her experience and take “300 pictures of everything.”
“I’m so excited,” Crowley sad. “It’s an opportunity of a lifetime.”
Reach Anthony Tao at [email protected].
