9.20.2005

Amy Peterson makes US Team

"If I make it, I make it," Amy Peterson said, nonchalantly. "If I don't, I don't. But I was meant to be a speed skater." Which is why Peterson is attempting a comeback to the Olympics.

At the American Cup, the first competition of the pre-Winter Olympic season, Peterson finished fifth among U.S. women. She earned a spot on the U.S. short track speedskating World Cup team. If Peterson makes the Olympic team, she would become the first U.S. winter sport athlete to make six Games and only the second six-time female U.S. Olympian. Fencer Janice Lee was in six Summer Games. When Peterson left the Delta Center ice in Salt Lake City on Feb. 16, 2002, she never imagined she'd try for another Games, she said Sunday.

"I was done," said Peterson, who carried the flag at the 2002 Opening Ceremonies . "I was never, ever going to do this again." There was a lot going on. Her father, Howard, was terminally ill. She wanted to spend time with him. She wanted to complete her college degree. She wanted to run a marathon. She wanted to coach. In 2003, she completed the Twin Cities Marathon. In 2004, her dad died. Last spring, she graduated from St. Paul's Concordia University. She coached for three years.

Still, two summers ago, she "got the bug" to race again. Last spring, she entered some competitions. She won. Soon, she sold the Vadnais Heights house she shared with her sister, Lynn. She quit her coaching job. She dropped her dog at her mother's house and moved to Marquette, Mich., to train full time. The bug took hold.

And until last month she was feeling terrific and in top shape. She attended a training camp at altitude in Colorado Springs. There, the chronic fatigue syndrome that hampered her Salt Lake races returned. She felt tired Sunday as she faded in the 1,000-meter race. But that's OK, she said. The experience is telling her how best to prepare for the Olympic trials in December.



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