Update from Nancy Sr. -Day 6 (& the struggling American Speedskating team)

13 Feb 2014

This is a huge panoramic satellite view of the Olympic park and surroundings. They just put it up on the wall in our hotel. I thought you would get a better feel for some of the videos I've sent by looking at this to put it all in perspective. Study this a minute and then go back to some of the videos already posted on previous days. I wish I had sent this first cause it's hard to get a feel for what I've sent without this context.

If anyone would like a longer video on this or actually have a specific request for some quick video clips from the Olympics (no events except Speedskating because I don't have any tickets to events) send the specifics to Nancy Jr. on her Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/NSwiderPeltzJr

For those of you watching more than just Brian's races, you are starting to wonder what is happening to the US Team. This team was touted as the most talented, and expected to bring home the greatest collection of medals ever! So far not a medal in 3 men and 3 ladies races, and the best placing has been 7th.
Only 3 men and 3 ladies races are left, with a hopeful yet questionable scenario of medals. What has happened?

Several reasons and some will never be known for sure, but right now the suspect is the newly designed Lockheed Martin skin suit that was NOT tested after manufacturing because of the attempt on the High Performance level to keep it secret. What a price to pay for trying to get an edge! But also, what a huge strategic blunder if high performance is supposed to be science. Isn't it protocol in the scientific world to race test before potentially negatively affecting anything or anybody? Let alone Olympic results?

Other potential reasons for the lack of expected success thus far can be:

1) selection of the Olympic team in Milwaukee would have been the most fair way to select an Olympic team that could best compete at a lowland rink, but also prepare the team for the conditions under which they would have to compete. But the organization chose the potential benefits of an NBC coverage with financial support over what was originally deemed the most fair and logical place for the selection.

2) the decision on the organizations part for the central program not to train in lowland before the Olympics, thereby replicating the Olympic ice conditions and atmosphere. Similar conditions were at their disposal in Milwaukee, but the benefits of altitude were the High Performance team's priority. Lowland training was never seriously considered, but questioned by most who were not in SLC.

3) the decision to have a pre-Olympic training camp outside in altitude in Italy, for the purpose of: retaining altitude in the system, to train on what was considered "similar" ice to Sochi, to test other new factors, and team unity, YET disregarding weather and the consequential training affects of such. 

4) the travel schedule to Sochi ended up requiring 2 early mornings with a late night back to back with team processing (on legs most of the time) into arriving at the Olympic village, figuring out a personal schedule and how to maneuver within the transportation availability which involved one week of serious walking affecting the ability to recover properly.

Opinions are out there, but I wanted to give you all a little perspective on what you may be wondering or what you have heard.

The team is waiting final approval, but they should be able to race in the suits they wore at the Fall World Cup competitions starting on Saturday for the men's 1500m. This should help the team determine if the suits are truly the factor for the unexpected results.

For Brian, he is physically and mentally ready and for sure anticipating this race. As his coach, I can honestly say his greatest assets towards his success are his 5th gear, as I call it, and his love of "playing this game"...AND of course, his coach :) haha

...until next time....keep us in your prayers for wisdom and safety. As always, I appreciate all the facebook comments. Jr. keeps taking screen shots and I'm getting them all!!! Except, I wish those little profile pictures on the side were more clear for me to see your faces :)

God bless from Sochi, Russia

Nancy Sr.



Another mashing session. We "scientifically" decide how much of this Brian needs by what his legs are "saying" to him everyday. Honestly, Brian has learned to sense his legs so well that I will ask him, "are your legs talking yet??!!"


I have already sent one of my "views out my window" or one on the "boardwalk" but when you wake up to a sea so perfect as this, you simply want to show everyone!!!! I wish I could enjoy it more, but I leave within 30' of getting up and don't come back til 9 or 10:00pm and it's too dark to see :(



A different take on speedskating 'turn-belt' dry land crossovers by the Japanese Olympic team....always looking for new interesting ways to dryland train for speedskating!