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Home > Jeff Schultz > Archives > 2008 > August > 18
Monday, August 18, 2008
Taormina looks to overcome obstacles in pentathlon
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Beijing - It was the founder of the Olympics, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, who created the first modern pentathlon, five events to mimic the skills of 19th century cavalry soldiers.
If nothing else, the sport’s Olympic debut in 1912 made for amusing history. George S. Patton, then a mere lieutenant, completely blew his medal chances when he finished 21st in the pistol competition after missing the target. But he wasn’t a bad swimmer.
So if Sheila Taormina does a face plant in the modern pentathlon, at least she has good company. Also, she’s not a bad swimmer. She competed at Georgia, won a gold medal in Atlanta in 1996. She made the next two Olympic teams as a triathlete. Even if she overshoots the target or not this week, she will make history as the first woman Olympian to compete in three sports. (Three men did it in the early 1900s, but in each case one of their events was tug-of-war. Not so soldier-like.)
Five events in one day - shooting, fencing, swimming, horse jumping, running - would test anybody’s resolve. But Taormina has endured worse. The death of a sister in a car accident. Clinical depression. Economic hardship. Stalking. All of the pressures associated with trying to become proficient in a five-event sport, knowing she had never ridden horse, shot a gun or held a sword in her life.
It probably speaks to the level of modern pentathlon in the U.S. that Taormina can make the Olympic team. (“We have athletes who are doing this for three years. I am used to athletes being in modern pentathlon for 10 years,” said U.S. coach Janusz Peciak.) But it doesn’t diminish the undertaking.
“I have been on the edge to the point that this was not a mentally healthy endeavor,” Taormina admitted. “My family for the first year asked me to not do this. The financial stress because I had to sell my house to do it. The mental stress. I was losing, falling off the horse. It’s tough to take. After you win a gold medal in one sport and you win a world championship in another sport, you find yourself getting humiliated time and time again. You’re broke financially. Nobody really believes you can do it.”
So why do it?
She says she needed a final challenge. She didn’t want to look back with regret for not trying for a third sport in a fourth Olympics. Jack Bauerle, her swim coach at Georgia, said, “There’s something that drives her that doesn’t drive other people.”
But start three new sports and there are going to be problems. The first was the horse. “She was incredibly intimidated,” her riding coach, Michael Cintas, said. “The biggest problem I had was getting her to relax. The horse knows.”
Taormina doesn’t do relax. She tried to retire after the ‘96 Games. She returned home to Livonia, Mich., and put her MBA to work, taking out a small business loan, buying a camper and driving around for public speaking, appearances at corporate events and sports clinics.
Kids asked if she was going back to the Olympics. She always said no.
“I did nothing sports-wise,” she said. “I ate at Taco Bell. I gained weight. I was just driving and eating junk food all the time. After two years of doing that, I entered a local triathlon in Michigan, just to lose weight.”
She laughed.
“It took me 21 years to figure out how to make the Olympic swim team. It took me one year and two months to make the Olympic triathlon team. Part of what I’ve learned is, ‘You’ve got an engine,’ but everybody takes their own path.”
That triathlon? She won the women’s race and finished fifth overall. The race director, Lew Kidder, told her she had Olympic potential. He ended up coaching her. Taormina made the U.S. teams in Sydney and Athens, finishing sixth and 23rd (suffering from leg cramps), respectively.
But she was battling significant issues. For 11 months, starting in the summer of 2002, she was stalked by a man in Livonia. James Conyers had phoned her one day asking for swim tips to improve his triathlon. Taormina told him they could meet in three weeks.
“The next day he left a message saying I would win a gold medal in 2004 and in 2005 I would retire and have his baby,” Taormina said. “I’ve never had a phone call like that. I didn’t know if it was a joke. It just grew from there - Fed Ex packages of roses, plans for our marriage, moving to France.”
She got a personal protection order, which he violated several times. Finally, he was arrested, convicted and sentenced to 40 to 60 months in jail. But after Athens, Taormina suffered from depression. She saw two sports psychologists. One told her she had post-traumatic stress disorder. “I said, ‘No, that’s for people who come back from war.’”
She got itchy again in 2005. She considered cross-country skiing. But it was too cold on the Upper Peninsula, even for a Michigan girl. Then a friend suggested modern pentathlon. When she heard she could be the first three-sport female, she was hooked. Her mother couldn’t talk her out of it. She trained 10 hours a day, six days a week. But she couldn’t attract sponsors and went broke. She sold her house or would’ve defaulted on the mortgage. She got depressed and went on anti-depressants. But she endured and she’s here.
She is 39. Her roommate and teammate, Margaux Isaksen, is 16.
“She’s like my big sister,” Isaksen said.
After this, Taormina says she is done with the Olympics. It’s time to get a real job. “Given what I’ve gone through this year, it will make it easy for me to close the door.”
She’s a long shot for a medal but isn’t conceding anything.
“I have the potential to win,” she said. “I also have the potential to look like a complete fool.”
Not really. Not even if she misses the target.
