Thursday, February 14, 2002
Auch pushing hard at fifth Olympics
By GREG Di CRESCE -- Winnipeg Sun
Compete in four Olympics, win a silver medal in your last one and then retire.
It's a script worthy of a CBC mini-series.
It's also the course that Winnipeg speed skater Susan Auch's life had run up until 1998.
But instead of closing the book on her skating career and ending it neatly there, Auch did something rather peculiar to the outside observer -- she returned and qualified for the 2002 Salt Lake Games at age 35.
"It probably caught a lot of people by surprise but not me. She could never sit still and she still loves to skate," said Susan's mom Rosemarie Auch. "All I hope this time is that she enjoys herself. She's earned that."
Susan began skating at age nine and worked her way out of Transcona to find a place on Canada's short track speed skating team in time for the 1988 Olympics.
She captured a bronze that year in the demonstration sport.
The next Olympics she switched to the long track and finished sixth in the 500m event.
In the 1994 Games in Lillehammer, Norway, Auch captured a silver in the 500m.
Four years later in Nagano, the sprinter repeated the feat.
"You know, to be honest those past Olympics are sort of a blur," Auch said.
"I came to them so focused on what I had to do that everything else was just background noise. This time I would like to leave here remembering everything."
So is Salt Lake Auch's Olympic vacation she never had compliments of Speed Skating Canada?
Not quite.
Yes, Auch didn't finish in the top 10 at either the 500m or 1,000m distances in the recent World Sprint Championships.
Yes, her current World Cup standing in the 500m is 14th.
And true, as she noted, she's in Utah to soak up the experience.
But don't let all those numbers and that comment fool you. They belie a competitive need in Auch that hasn't yet been sated and is likely a key reason why she's back.
UNDER PRESSURE
"I know I put pressure on myself and I can't change that," Auch said in response to her mom's concern that she ought to enjoy herself. "I always want to see how far I can push myself and it's no different this time. I know if I ended up fourth in an event and hadn't pushed myself all the way the disappointment I'd be feeling would be almost immeasurable."
And it is with a similar outlook she's approached her career and life.
"So, I'm here because I feel I've still got something left, because it hasn't become a job that I feel I'm lugging a lunch box to, and because of the adrenaline rush," Auch said.
Bottom line, the Murdoch MacKay Collegiate grad believes she still has what it takes to win a medal.
However, not everybody feels that way -- some media members in Salt Lake have asked Auch if she's competing at the Games.
And Speed Skating Canada forgot to inform the 12-year member of the national team of a press conference to introduce the Olympic team.
"Yeah, when you get overlooked you feel that people have lost confidence in you and that hurts," she said. "But I do know my coach and my family believe in me undyingly."
Auch plans on parlaying that faith into at least one more Olympic chapter before she retires for good.
And anyway, who's to say she hasn't earned the right to try.
Last night in the first leg of the 500m, Auch skated a 38.84 putting her 20th out of 31 skaters heading into today's final leg of the competition.
THE AUCH FILE
Born: 01/03/66
Home town: Winnipeg
Years on team: 12
Height: 5-foot-8
Weight: 140 pounds
Best times
500m: 38.09
1,000m: 1:16.20
Career highlights
The Salt Lake Games mark her fifth Olympics.
She won a bronze medal on the 1988 relay team (Short Track/demonstration sport).
Silver medalist in the 500 metre long track event in 1994 and 1998.
1995 Canadian Press female Athlete of the Year.
2002 Games Long Track Speed Skating Coverage
