Nancy Ann has retired.
The 14-calendar year-old Stoddard Avenue skating star has resolved that “skating for enjoyable is a single detail, but some of them are out for blood and that will take the satisfaction out of the sport.”
“I guess I manufactured up my intellect past yr immediately after the Springfield fulfill,” Nancy Ann stated. “I gained the race, but the lady who arrived in second informed the judges I had pushed her on the convert. It was disappointing to me simply because I have under no circumstances pushed everyone. It hurt to have the judges consider some thing they by no means noticed — for the reason that it never happened.”
This finishes a four-calendar year skating history that would be tricky to match. Often modest and unassuming, when interviewed this morning, Nancy Ann could not recall how lots of honors she experienced won. A verify with her mom and dad, Mr. and Mrs. Francis E. Viner of 162 Stoddard Avenue, confirmed Nancy Ann has copped 74 medals and 13 trophies.
Involved are the National and North American out of doors speed skating titles in the midget class (gained in 1948), and the nationwide indoor and North American outdoor honors in the juvenile course this 12 months. In 1949, her initially year in the juvenile class, Nancy Ann didn’t contend in the nation-huge meets.
Nancy Ann, or Nan as many call her, initially began skating when she was a tot of 4. “I was also young to go to the significant rinks these types of as Springside Park,” she said, “so my father built a rink for me in the yard. That was when we lived on Oak Road.”
No, she did not use double-runners — her skates have been single-bladed all the time. “My father taught me how to skate at 1st. He spent a good deal of time with me and was extremely enthusiastic. But my very first coach was Fran Martin. He taught me for a yr.”
Soon after Mr. Martin moved out of town (he is a salesman for a photographic studio), Alfred Basiliere coached Nan in her 2nd year of level of competition. The past two years she uncovered far more of the finer points of skating from Alex Goguen.
How do her mom and dad really feel? “It came as very a shock,” Mrs. Viner stated. “We experienced no inkling of it right up until she explained to us a few times in the past….