Nancy Swider-Peltz Jr.

Nancy Swider-Peltz Jr. (born January 10, 1987) is an American speed skater who competed at the 2010 Winter Olympics.

2010 Winter Olympics

In the 3000 m, Swider-Peltz finished 9th overall with a time of 4:11.16 and placed 4th along with Jennifer Rodriguez and Jilleanne Rookard in the team pursuit event at the Vancouver Olympics, upsetting the Canadian women by winning their first round of qualifications, which was also dubbed one of the greatest upsets of the 2010 Olympics, because the Canadian women were favored to win gold.

Biography

Swider-Peltz graduated from Wheaton North High School in Wheaton, Illinois, in 2005 and is currently working, amongst her speedskating career, on her Bachelor's degree in Communications at Wheaton College. Swider-Peltz's mother, Nancy Sr., competed in four Winter Olympics as a speed skater from the mid-1970s to the late 1980s. In Nancy Sr.'s last Olympics, baby Nancy was one year old. Once Nancy Jr. picked up speedskating at the age of 13, her dream was to participate in the Olympics. In the beginning years, she even competed against her mother at the Olympic trials in 2001, the season they both overlapped each other before Nancy Sr. became a coach. Nancy Sr. has been Nancy Jr.'s coach throughout her career and now her brother, Jeffrey Peltz Jr. (who goes by Jeffrey Swider-Peltz in the speedskating world) has begun speedskating.