Four years ago Tani Mintz had never skated in her life. Today she is ranked among the top 10 speed skaters in ladies' 3000 meters in the United States.

The event that sparked her interest in the sport is now the place she is aspiring to get: the Olympics.

When the 2002 Olympics came to Salt Lake City, where Mintz's parents had a home in the area, Mintz took the opportunity to attend them. Mintz remembers the exact moment that speed skating grabbed her attention.

"My friend and I were sitting, we were at the Delta Center, we were sitting third level, kinda nose-bleed section," Mintz said, "And we were just like standing over the railing watching, and I just thought it was so cool. And then I was like 'I can do it,' and then I wanted to do it."

So she did.

After the day's events ended, Mintz went online and found that Skokie, Ill., her hometown, had a skating club. When she got back to Skokie, she just started showing up to the club twice a week.

About a month later, one of the coaches took her up to Milwaukee to teach her how to speed skate. Around this time, Mintz decided to change her plans: to attend Marquette and become a speed skater.

Dave Tamburrino found Mintz the August of her freshman year and has been her coach for the past four years. When Tamburrino first met Mintz, she was still a new skater, but he recognized her athletic abilities and wanted to translate them into skating.

"She had a general idea of how to skate, and we had to make her a speed skater," Tamburrino said.

Mintz had a background in basketball and track, but the allure of the Olympics was enough to redirect her focus.

"The vibe and the atmosphere in the Delta Center (during the Olympics) with the crowd cheering, it was amazing," Mintz said. "No basketball game, no NBA game, could ever compare to the Olympics, and I just wanted to be part of it."

Mintz picked up the new sport quickly enough to qualify for this year's Olympic trials. She took ninth place in the trials with a time of 4:27.90, and while she will only watch this year's games, she has a new goal: qualifying for the 2010 Olympics.

"When I started skating four years ago my goal was Olympic trials this year and I made that," said Mintz. "So I guess right now my plan is another four years."

Mintz's rapid improvement is not only a result of her natural ability, but also her hard work, according to Mintz's teammate Carla Langenthal.

"She's gotten to be really amazing now in a really short time" Langenthal said. "She's really dedicated to it. … She follows the coach's program really well."

That program includes bike riding, weight training and of course, a lot of skating. Along with that training, Mintz attended Marquette full time, working towards a degree in the College of Arts and Sciences. After three years of a heavy workload — which also included a job at Starbucks — Mintz took last semester off to focus on training for the Olympic trials and is taking this semester off so that she can go home over the only four weeks of break she gets from her training.

As she continues to improve, Mintz knows that the work is going to get much harder.

"I feel like I've sort of exhausted my raw talent," Mintz said. "This year it's been a little more of a struggle than the last few years."

Mintz's struggle is the same as that of any athlete, trying to become the best in the world at what they do.

"To become better and better you have to work harder and harder to make smaller gains," Tamburrino said.

To make those small gains, Mintz will have to rely on more than just her athleticism.

"I got so far and I knew that at some point I would kind of level off and have to focus on different things," Mintz said. "I sort of feel like I'm getting to that point now: it's more patience now, and experience, and time."