A six-time Olympic judge and referee is hosting a watch party at the Pettit National Ice Center in West Allis, Wisconsin, as the facility where she helped train Olympic champions prepares to celebrate what could be another gold medal for the state.
Gayle Tanger, who grew up in West Allis and served on the Olympic Committee, said today represents the "hot ticket day" for Olympic competition, with multiple events featuring athletes with Wisconsin connections.
"If you're going to take off of work, this would be the day to do it," Tanger said.
The day's competition begins with Jordan Stolz competing in the 1500 meter speed skating event. Stolz trains at the Pettit National Ice Center, which already has two gold medals displayed from previous Olympics.
Watch Kidd O'Shea's interview with Gayle Tanger:
"We're hoping for more with Jordan," Tanger said.
The Olympic schedule also includes the women's hockey final between the United States and Canada, followed by the ladies' figure skating free program.
"We have three wonderful ladies. One is very, very close right now in medal contention. The other two are within striking [distance] as well," Tanger said about the figure skating competition.
The Pettit National Ice Center was built in 1992 specifically to train Olympic champions. Tanger explained the facility was constructed because there was no covered speed skating oval in the United States at the time, and the 1994 Olympics would be held indoors.
"We needed to go fast to put a cover on our rink here so that we could train, continue to train our Olympians," Tanger said.
The facility has produced legendary speed skaters including Eric Heiden, Dan Jansen and Bonnie Blair.
"We have such a rich history of speed skating here. We wanted to keep that centralized right here at the Pettit Center," Tanger said.
Tanger plans to watch the competitions from home with multiple screens set up to track scores and results throughout the day.
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