Sitting in a coffee shop not far from where she once trained, looking every bit as fit as she did during her time as an Olympic medalist, Susan Auch contemplated the question all great athletes are left to ponder: What is your legacy?

After staring at the ceiling for moments on end, Auch answered: "An intense hopefulness. I always expected myself to do more and for things to be better."

She didn't win every time she took to the starting line in her sleek racing suit and long-track skate blades, but that was always Auch's intent. To push, to strive, to be on the medal podium; it was the rocket fuel that powered her to a pair of silver medals in back-to-back Winter Games.

But there was more to it than that, according to the man who knows Auch better than most, her brother and former national team coach, Derrick Auch. To him, his sister filled a void and gave Canadian speed skating the intense hopefulness it needed to move ahead ever faster.

"Gaétan [Boucher] did quite well in 1980-84," he explained. "Then, there was the group that won medals in 1998 in Nagano. Susan bridged that gap [between 1984 and 1998]. ... She was a key part in creating an attitude in Canadian speed skating, ‘We can win.'

"She had that confidence."

Auch still radiates confidence in her current roles as a wife, mother of three girls (all under 5), a Calgary-based real estate broker, a motivational speaker and a board member of Speed Skating Canada. She is busy, constantly on the go. (A family trait, joked her brother from his Calgary law office.)

For Auch, there was another characteristic worth noting: being able to get the most from herself at the biggest events.

"The first time I won a World Cup gold medal, it was [outdoors and] really wind-aided. I knew that. [American ace] Bonnie Blair knew that," Auch said. "The media treated it like it was my right to win that medal and you start to believe it. I beat Bonnie [later] at the Olympic Oval and that was all because my confidence level had grown."

Growing up in Winnipeg, an admirer of Canadian speed skaters Sylvia Burka and Cathy Priestner, Auch worked her way through the ranks before gravitating to the short-track version of her sport, the one where bodies collide and skaters can fall like pins in a bowling alley.

Auch's first Olympic experience was as a short-track competitor in 1988, and she came away from the Calgary Games with a bronze medal in the 3,000-metre relay, then a demonstration event. Soon after, she switched to long track and began dominating the Canadian sprint championships en route to becoming a world contender in the 500 metres.

At the 1992 Albertville Olympics, she posted Canada's best showing, finishing sixth. Two years later in Lillehammer, she skated the race of her life, narrowly missing a gold medal by 0.36 of a second.

"Lillehammer was the best. I went above and beyond," a beaming Auch said. "It was like winning the lottery."

Within two years, Auch had reason to wonder if she would ever come close to winning again. Already bothered by tendonitis in her right quadriceps, she heard a "crunching and snapping" in her right leg while lifting weights. It turned out she'd suffered a stress fracture in her femur.

She opted for surgery, knowing her competitive career could be done and it was her brother, then her coach, who helped her through the tough stretches.

"My brother cocooned me. He insulated me from anything negative," Auch said. "I cried; I was scared. I thought I wouldn't be able to skate again. But it gave me an opportunity to think about skating technically perfect ... I did something about it then started climbing the mountain again."

Auch made it back in time to win a medal, a second silver, in 1998 at Nagano, where the Canadian long-track and short-track speed skating teams won three gold, two silver and four bronze medals. While satisfied with the result, it wasn't quite as special.

"Lillehammer was pure joy and excitement. Nagano, I was doing my job," she said.

There would be one more Olympics for Auch. She retired in 1999 then came back for the 2002 Salt Lake City Games, thinking she could still improve. In three races, she finished no better than 20th, then retired for good.

Since then, she's barely slowed her pace.

"When I quit skating I wanted to have a balanced life," Auch said, admitting she'd like to coach high-level athletes at some point in the future. Until then, she's nurturing the hopefulness in her children.

"What I've learned the most is how totally selfish my life was and how totally unselfish I am now. What amazes me is how generally optimistic kids are and if you don't squash that, they can be anything in life."

Susan Auch

Born March 1, 1966, in Winnipeg

Notable accomplishments
Won the silver medal in the women's 500-metre speed-skating event at the 1998 Nagano Olympics; silver in the 500 at the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics; bronze in the 3,000-metre relay at the 1988 Calgary Olympics; six-time overall winner at the Canadian sprint championships.

Background
First 500-metre race was in December of 1975 at Winnipeg's Sargent Park Oval, which was later renamed Susan Auch Oval; married to Floyd Campbell, a former competitive swimmer.

Quote
"Successful athletes have one thing in common - an unfaltering belief in what they do. And they can bring that to younger athletes."