Lindberg quartet just wants to 'go fast'

CEDAR RAPIDS – All it took for Scott and Tali Lindberg's four children to get on the ice was ice … cream.

This wasn't like a parental bribe or anything. It was the treat Tali Lindberg provided for 8-year-old Nolen and 9-year-old Brianna Lindberg after their first official speed skating meet in Madison, Wis., in September.

You know how it goes with kids. When two are given something, the other two inevitably want in on it as well.

That was absolutely the case here with 7-year-old Aleia and 4-year-old Kaeden.

“Nolen and Brianna told Aleia that I took them to McDonald's for ice cream afterwards,” Tali Lindberg said. “She was like ‘That's not fair. I want ice cream.' I told her that she didn't go to the meet. So after that, everybody wanted to go because they wanted their ice cream afterwards. That's when all four of them started going to the meets.”

They haven't stopped. The Lindbergs, from Robins, have traveled all over the Midwest in the last four months.

Each one of the kids has done his/her fair share of winning in short-track, long-track and Olympic-style (against the clock) events. Their next big meet is in a couple of weeks, the Great Lakes Championships in Milwaukee.

“I only have one gold medal,” a disappointed Brianna Lindberg said.

“I have three,” a gleeful Kaeden said.

The Lindbergs are practicing with longtime local speed skater Mike Greenland. They've only been skating for about a year, but continue to improve.

They are enthusiastic learners, Greenland said.

“It's kind of like me giving back to the sport,” he said. “When I was young, I had a coach. Now I teach a few things that I learned when I was young. We don't have a big group here, so to get these four kids together and do this, have them travel out of town, basically do the same things I did when I was young, makes it a lot of fun. They've got a lot of talent. They doing great. We just have to keep working them.”

“I can't stand, turn, stop, do anything on the ice,” Scott Lindberg said. “It's pretty amazing to watch how fast they have picked it up.”

And how fast they want to go.

“I like going fast the most,” Nolen Lindberg said. “And the corners. I like the corners.”

Mom and dad are giving their kids at least a couple more years to decide how serious they want to get with speed skating. Ice time for training is hard to come by, and it's obviously quite a commitment, time wise and financially for the family.

But you get the impression they might be in it for the long haul.

“I'm going to keep speed skating,” Nolen said. “I'm going to just do short track, though. I don't like long track very much. They don't have very good corners. And it's long. I'm not a distance skater.”