Salt Lake Tribune - Speedskating: 'Grandmother' aiming for fourth Olympics

Salt Lake Tribune - Speedskating: 'Grandmother' aiming for fourth Olympics: "KEARNS - Catherine Raney never imagined she would still be speedskating, not after spending nearly half of her life training for it and enjoying her best race at the perfect time in her third Olympics at the 2006 Turin Games.
But she's still not finished.
Heading into the U.S. Speedskating Championships starting today at the Utah Olympic Oval, the 27-year-old 'grandmother' of the American team has set her sights on a fourth Olympic experience at the 2010 Vancouver Games, armed with a refreshing new outlook on her sport after nearly retiring from it last year.
'I love it again,' she said, eyes wide with excitement. 'I absolutely love it.'
The gregarious Raney wasn't so sure about that last season, in the aftermath of a seventh-place finish in the 5,000 meters at Turin that was 'one of those races where I walked away saying I did everything possible,' she said.
The Americans were in disarray amid the tumultuous restructuring of U.S. Speedskating, and still did not have any other female distance skaters strong enough to push Raney in training. That became an issue once Raney was 'booted out' of the training arrangement that she had enjoyed in Calgary for seven years.
'I got kicked out of Canada!' she joked.
Raney had trained with the Canadians in advance of both"