Story posted Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Titans Skate To Vancouver Games
GBS Grads Get Ready For Olympics
By TOM ROBB Journal & Topics Reporter
When the Olympic torch is lit in Vancouver next month, not one but two Glenview residents will be in the stadium waving the flag and ready to compete.
Brian Hansen and Lana Gehring, both 2009 Glenbrook South High School graduates, made the U.S. Speed Skating team---Hansen in long track speed skating and Gehring in short track.
Gehring made her qualifying times at two short track meets in Marquette, Michigan, in September and November of last year.
Hansen recently got back from nine-weeks on the road that included five World Cup competitions in seven weeks and one major meet.
During the trip, Hansen took the bronze and broke a 1,500-meter junior world record with a time of 1:44.45 at a junior World Cup Olympic qualifying meet in Vancouver. He then cemented his place on the team with a time of 1:44.83 at the Olympic trials in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, Dec. 29. Hansen leaves for Olympic Village in Vancouver on Tuesday, Feb. 2. His first race will be on Saturday, Feb. 20.
Hansen said he would take that time to train hard and become familiar with the rink. He said that while his family has been focused on accommodations and tickets for the games, his mind has been set on training and trying to have fun.
Hansen said he has a good chance at medaling at the Winter Olympics in the team pursuit event. Pursuit pits two teams of three against each other. Using drafting and teamwork the team attempts to cross the finish line together.
U.S. Speed Skating has a very high profile benefactor in their sponsor, Stephen Colbert of the Comedy Central television program the "Colbert Report". Hansen and other skaters met Colbert at the Junior World Cup in Vancouver last month. In an episode that is expected to air soon, Hansen presented Colbert a team jacket.
"He's a nice guy and it's great what he's doing," said Hansen.
Hansen and Gehring started speed skating 10 years ago in Northbrook when they were both nine years old. The two trained together for six years until they were 15. Hansen then continued his training by commuting as many as four days a week to one of two long track rinks in the United States in Milwaukee. Hansen said he first laced up skates at the age of six when he started playing hockey at the Glenview Ice Center.
Gerhing went to Salt Lake City to train at about the age of 15, returning to Glenview for school at GBS.
Hansen said his teachers were supportive last year as he had a good deal of homework to make up as he traveled the world to competitive meets. Those trips took Hansen to far-flung locations like China, Japan, Norway, Germany, Holland, Poland and Canada.
"The way we see life in Glenview isn't how it is in the rest of the word sometimes," said Hansen.
Hansen said he was in China at the end of their New Year celebrations and saw fireworks lit up on every street corner.
Also making the U.S. Olympic Speed Skating team was 23-year-old Nancy Swider Peltz, Jr., of Wheaton. Swider-Peltz has been Hansen's training partner for several years and is the daughter of his coach, also named Nancy Swider-Peltz.
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