Bruce Conner failed to qualify for the US speed skating team in 1976. He promptly put his skates away, went to college, got married and became an airline pilot. Now, nearly 30 years after the Innsbruck Games, at the age of 49, Conner is back trying to make the 2006 Olympics squad in Turin in February. He has qualified to compete this weekend in Kearns, Utah for a spot on the US team.

Most of his rivals are younger than his own children who watch him from the stands along with his wife.

"This sport and this work really feed my soul somehow. I don't know how, but it just feels right for me to be doing this," Conner said.

Conner is the brother of gold medal gymnast Bart Conner, winner of the parallel bars in 1984 at the Los Angeles Games, and brother-in-law of Olympic great Romanian Nadia Comaneci.

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