OSWEGO — Sydney-yu Terpening stepped off the world stage and into the start of nursing school a couple days later, continuing the multi-faceted pursuit of her goals on and off the ice.
The Oswego native recently competed in speedskating events at the FISU World University Games in Lake Placid, contending at an international competition in her former home training site.
Throughout the process of elite-level training in hopes of an eventual Olympics berth in the sport, Terpening is starting her path toward becoming a registered nurse. She also returns to Oswego a few times per year to work as an engineering contractor at the area power plants.
“It’s really hard, but thankfully I have an awesome support system with my parents and family and friends, the Oswego community, and the skating community here in Milwaukee, my coaches,” Terpening said. “They’re all very understanding that I have other priorities that are just as important as skating.”
Terpening competed in the 500-meter, 1,000, 1,500, 3,000, and the 16-lap mass start. She posted her outside season best in the 500 and achieved her primary season goal of qualifying for Team USA after suffering an ankle fracture in September and missing roughly eight weeks of training.
Terpening lived and attended school in Lake Placid and started her high-level speedskating development with the Adirondack Speedskating Club from 2014-16.
She spoke of her excitement to return to the area for the first time since January 2019 when she competed and first qualified for Team USA for the Junior World Championships.
The atmosphere was like a “mini-Olympics,” per Terpening, and she reveled in the environment of interacting with other athletes, both in speedskating and supporting others from Team USA in the 12 sports represented.
“It was really cool to have an international competition in Lake Placid, and it was really cool to be back,” Terpening said. “It was really nice to see a lot of the people I went to school with, people I know just from training there.”
She added: “The highlight of the weekend for me was probably the 500m because it was really close to my indoor season best, and I felt like I had a lot of good technical aspects of that race.”
About a month prior to her most recent international competition, Terpening took a stint working at the Nine Mile Point Nuclear Station in Oswego.
She comes back to the area for about 4-6 weeks at a time to work as a decontamination technician during scheduled outages at the local plants.
Terpening completed a two-year engineering program at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, near her current home training site for speedskating for the past six years.
“I love going back to Oswego to work, I love the work environment and the people I work with, I usually work with the same group of people at the three power plants,” Terpening said. “It’s really cool when I go back to work because not only am I there to do the job they hired me for, but everybody there knows about my skating and is so supportive, excited to see me and ask about my season.”
Terpening is now studying at Waukesha County Technical College in Wisconsin as she aims to become a registered nurse. She was back in the classroom quickly upon returning from the World University Games in late January.
“I really wanted to be in a setting where I could interact with people a bit more and help people a bit more,” Terpening said of her decision to pursue nursing.
Terpening continues to train with Team D.A.S.H. in Milwaukee under former Team USA Olympic speedskaters Dave Cruikshank and Bonnie Blair-Cruikshank.
The 22-year-old Terpening advanced to the U.S. Olympic Trials in long-track speedskating last year and has competed in multiple junior world championship events in the sport.
“I think her performances the past couple weeks have been very good and she’s definitely on the upswing of where she wants to be going, and she’s targeted in the direction she wants to be going while pursuing her career in nursing, which is quite a task,” Dave Cruikshank said.
“She’s really a role model on our D.A.S.H. speedskating team as someone who can manage their time and do multiple things at the same time at high levels.”
Terpening is set for upcoming time trials at the Pettit National Ice Center to wind down her speedskating season. She is hoping to reach some senior qualifying standards to set herself up for summer training leading into next year.
“I look forward to ending the season on a good note, then getting after it again for next year and building on the solid base, technically and physically, that she’s worked so hard to get,” Cruikshank said.
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