I thought that Sheila had retired after the Olympics but she raced the ITU event this past weekend. I’m certainly not complaining as she is one of my favorite athletes but wondered if anyone could shed some light on why she decided to return to the sport so quickly.
Last time I spoke with Lew Kidder, her tri coach, she was training for the Olympic Pentathlon.
I had to look it up, so here it is.
Modern Pentathlon
Baron Pierre de Coubertin founded the modern pentathlon believing the event would test a man’s/woman’s moral qualities as much as his physical resources and skills, thereby producing the ideal, complete athlete.
The modern pentathlon is an Olympic sport which consists of competition in five events in one gruelling day.
Competitors earn points for their performances in each of the five disciplines: pistol shooting, epee fencing, swimming, riding (equestrian show jumping) and cross-country running.
The total points scored in the first four events determine the starting order for the final event, turning the cross-country running into a handicap event.
The leading competitor sets off first and the intervals between that competitor and those who follow is determined by the points difference between them.
Because of this handicapping system, the first three competitors to cross the line at the end of the run fill the gold, silver and bronze medal positions.
Modern pentathlon is a true representation of the Olympic movement. The 5 Olympic rings are reflected in modern pentathlon’s 5 events and participation from all 5 continents.
It is a true sport of the Olympic Games, created by the founder of the Modern Games Pierre de Coubertin and reflecting the ideals embodied by the Olympic movement. Modern pentathlon has to remain an indefatigable part of it.
Sheila is a stud!
It is amazing. If she completes this goal, and likely she will, she will have been an Olympic athlete in three seperate sports. Very, very few athletes have done that, especially within the summer games themselves.
To me, Sheila Taormina epitomizes everything that is good about the Olympics and the sporting ethos. She is a fine person and a fine competitor, an example.
I rode with Sheila on Wednesday. She told me she has to do a few triathlons to keep her triathlon sponserships going. She is one tough athlete and I am sure she will do well in whatever she does. It sure has been nice having an Olympic triathlete in our town here.
It must be pretty cool to be able to wake up one morning and think “I’d like to go back to the Olympics again, that was fun. What sport should I try now?”
Its going to take some work to learn how to shoot, fence and ride but she should be able to swim and run circles around the current US team.
I spoke to Sheila about this over 2 years ago and she was heavily considering this for the last Olympics but obviously decided to give it one more go at the Tri. Sheila came down to a race in Akron Ohio two years ago to show us how it was done and she was great. It was an HFP championship event.
I wish her all the best.
Michael
Sheila is indeed training for modern pentathlon. Understandably, she has been concentrating on the skill sports, none of which she had ever done before. But she is a terrific overall athlete, with superior hand-eye coordination, and is learning fast.
Modern pentathlon consists of five events contest during a single day and is scored similarly to the decathlon in four of the events (shooting, riding, swimming, running). In other words, points are given based on fixed standards. In the fifth sport (fencing), you “bout” each of the other competitors (one touch or sudden death decides each bout) and your score is relative to how many wins and losses you achieve.
How well might she do? It’s way early, of course, but here are some things to consider:
**The women’s gold medal in Athens was won with about 5450 points.
**In swimming, a woman is awarded 1000 points for a 2:40 in the 200-meter long course and 12 additional points for each second you either go over or under that mark. The best any pentathlete swam in Athens was about 2:15, or about 1300 points. Sheila has lifetime pr of 2:01xx - so if she could go 2:06 in Beijing, she would get 1408 points.
**In running, a woman is awarded 1000 points for a 11:20 on the 3000 meter xc course, plus or minus 4 points for each second… The quality of the course will matter a lot - but if Sheila ran a 10:00 (she did a 5K last year in 16:05), she would earn about 1320 points.
**In equestian, they set up a course with a number of four-foot jumps and then take off for (a) knocking down the bars, (b) the horse refusing, and (c) if you exceed the maximum time limit. No style points; over is over, no matter how you look. The sport furnishes the horses, and you draw your ride by lot - and then they give you 20 minutes before the event to get acquainted with your equine partner-for-a-day. If she scored in the bottom 1/3 of all riders, she would still get about 1050 points (based on scores in Athens).
**So with two events left, she would have about 3800 points. If she was again in the bottom 1/3 in shooting, she would earn 1000 or so points, so that would bring her to 4800. Which means she would only need 700 in fencing to be the favorite to win - and it is almost impossible to go below 700 in that event, even if you lose most of your bouts.
A lot of things can go wrong between now and then, but she is used to setting and reaching goals. In the meantime, she will continue to race triathlons on a much reduced schedule - and off a much reduced conventional triathlon training schedule. Understandably, she will have to accept certain limitations because of the latter - as she learned during the run at Mazatlan!!
Very cool post. As much as you can, please give updates on her Pentathlon training. I’m sure we’d all be fascinated with her training. I know I would.
Thanks again for posting that.
Good luck to her!
I’d bet she’ll do really well. Most anyone can learn how to shoot if they practice and have a good coach. Likewise, I think just about anyone could get to be a reasonably competent show jumper if they are comfortable around horses and are reasonably athletic. One thing I have learned watching my daughter ride is that it is quite a bit more technical than it looks at first. I always assumed it was 90% horse 10% rider but after watching it up close, I’d say it is about 70% rider - 30% horse. The riding a strange horse part really gives a huge benefit to those folks who love horses. IMHO, her chances of getting a medal go up dramatically if she grew up dreaming of having a pony, even if she never rode as a kid. You gotta show some love to get an animal to haul your butt over a 4 foot wall.
My very limited experience with fencing consisted of getting “stabbed” repeatedly without ever seeing it coming. That seems like the hardest of the 5 to me.
All my best to Sheila, what an amazing athlete!
She needs to write a book or have a book ghostwritten about this stuff or keep a blog going. I’m only a cyclist and I find this fascinating.
Her biggest problem is falling in love with each horse and wanting to take it home. Very fickle.
maybe she should email Olaf…it was his sport initially. His twin brother Ingo was even German national champ of modern pentathlon.