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Age 29, hometownMonica entered pentathlon through Pony Club. Although the show jumping discipline is her strongest event, fencing and shooting are not far behind. She has the genetic good fortune that makes her a frustrating opponent to fence, a left-handed and small framed five foot ten. She is also one of the top woman pentathlon shooters in the world. Pentathletes that are strong in all three technical events are rare, Monica is one of these few.
She has seen remarkable development on the international level in the past few years. She has qualified for the world championships every year since 2002, was the first female pentathlete to ever qualify for the Olympic Games, and her 13th place in Athens in 2004 was the highest a Canadian pentathlete has ever finished in the Olympics, male or female. She was also the lone Canadian Aboriginal athlete competing in
THE LATEST NEWS!! July 24/07 The beauty of the internet. We were able to get blow-by-blow results from Rio on Monica's performance. She was second after the shoot, and maintained the second place right through the fence, the swim, the ride and the run to end up with the silver medal. Brazil, on home turf, won the gold. Many of you already know this and thanks for your calls - some heard it on the BBC and other media. The Sun stated she had a slot on the Beijing squad, but Monica is reluctant to believe this as a fact. It is declared as an Olympic qualification but until she hears it officially from the COC we are reluctant to state it as a fact. Canada has raised the bar for qualifications. Either way, it is exciting for her to be on the podium and Brazil has put on a great party. We are looking forward to her accounts when she returns for five days on Friday (then off to Calgary for Nationals, Berlin for World Championships and finally Beijing for World Cup Final which is the Olympic test event. Josh Reiker-Fox from Calgary won the bronze the next day in the mens competition. The Canadians success is, in large part, due to their coach Philipp Waeffler who has put so much into these athletes over the last few years. Philipp is Swiss and went to the Games in Atlanta as a pentathlete. Despite their small numbers, Canadians are getting noticed in the international pentathlon circle. Take care everyone. Gilian and Roger.
2006 Season Review
In the last week of November the 2006 pentathlon season finished. It was the longest season in my athletic career starting with the Hungarian indoor competition last February and ending with World championships in Guatemala, (the last week of November).
I also competed a lot this season; 17 times. Some of my results this season were my best ever, and some were far from my best but after two weeks of rest from training I can look at the year with a somewhat objective view. Hopefully I can take some of this objectivity and use it to decide how I can improve things for next year (it starts again already in February, as usual, and will end in August).
The indoor competition last February in Budapest was purely for experience. For those of you who don’t know, after the Olympics in 2004 I went home to Victoria, took a one month training break and promptly broke my arm, then managed to follow it up with a stress fracture in my left fibula so I didn’t compete much in 2005 (just Canadian Championships where I finished 3rd and Pan American Championships where I finished 2nd). That’s why I needed to go to a level 2 competition and get some experience first thing this season. I just didn’t have the confidence to go into a world cup after more than a year off.
As it happened I came down with quite a bad cold right before Budapest but we went anyways so I could shoot a competition, fence with the European girls, and ride a horse over a big course. The running and the swimming I did but not with a maximum intensity as I usually would because the day after we flew home from Budapest we flew to Acapulco for world cup #1… and my cold had turned into a bronchial infection and I still wanted to compete in Mexico. It would be a good world cup to start off with.
At this point I was a little uncertain about this start to the season, but I had a great competition in Mexico and I finished 9th. My highest world cup finish before that was 10th at the Beijing Olympic qualifier in 2004.
At the beginning of March we went to Cairo for the African championships, where except for a week run and stomach problems, I had a good day and finished 10th. The exciting thing was we won the team event, Kara, Elena and I. We beat some of the strongest teams in the world and so began in the backs of all our minds that we could possibly soon have quite a good relay team at world championships. To date Canada’s best women’s relay result at world championships was 10th, that was us last year in Warsaw. I only competed in the relay as I was only just recovered from my tress fracture and not in good enough shape for the extra distance of the individual competition.
The next world cup was Millfield, England. There I had a very disappointing fence and didn’t make it into the final. On this day, I was technically inaccurate, and slow, not a good combination. I had to digest this and move on with the rest of the season although it was disappointing to have a bad day in what is usually one of my best events.
We went on to the world cup in Hungary, after Millfield though where I had a good day and made it into the final. It was the strongest level of competition of the year so far and I had my strongest physical day ever. I had to run extremely hard if I was to make the final, and I did. In the final I again didn’t fence well though so at this point I had to have a talk with my coaches and get my head together. One of my weaknesses as an athlete is that I lose confidence easily and I gain it slowly so these poor fences were a bit of a blow to me. Fortunately, both my fencing coaches, Victor Gantsevich in Canada, and Rolf Seeliger in Switzerland, plus Philipp are quite receptive to my concerns and we managed to come up with some new plans for my development. The first step was to go home in June and compete at Canadian Championships (in Vancouver this year) and to Mexico City for the Pan American championships). It was a confidence-inspiring trip. I managed to win the Pan American Championships despite the terrible effects altitude has on me, and I also won Canadian Championships. I stayed at home for a couple of months, before I went back to Europe to finish the season (although it took three more months to finish). In September I finished 10th at the world cup In Cairo, and one week later I missed the final at the world cup in Chianciano, Italy. Missing the final in Italy was almost my most disappointing day ever, because I had a huge desire to race again two days later. Although I swam a best time in that semi final, I had a really good feeling I could swim an even faster time two days later.
As it happened missing the final in Chianciano only enabled me to rest up a bit better for the world cup Final (the championship of all the world cups) the following week. It was five days after Chianciano, not very much time for recovery for those athletes who competed in Cairo, then went directly to Italy to compete in both the semi final and the final, and lastly the world cup final. It would have been four days of pentathlon in a 10-day period. I finished 6th at the world cup final, my best result ever. I am pretty sure that I couldn’t have run as hard as I did if I had competed 5 days before.
We had about five weeks now until world championships so Philipp organized a training camp for us in Davos. It was attended by German, Dutch, Swiss, and Canadian pentathletes so we had a good group to train with in preparation for worlds. Davos is the same altitude as Guatemala City (1500m) so it was an ideal place for me to prepare and adapt to compete at altitude. We already knew that I am especially affected by altitude and it doesn’t make a lot of sense for me to compete at it if I am not prepared for it. In the middle of the camp we all attended a smaller international pentathlon competition in Switzerland, and I managed to win it!
By the time my competition day arrived in Guatemala I felt very fit and very strong. In the semi final I was very very nervous, I had never made the final at worlds before and somehow took these thoughts to the competition with me. I shot 178 (that’s a bit low for me), likely a result of the pressure. I pulled myself together though and fenced better than I had since the Olympics, I swam well and only had to run moderately hard to make it into the final. I finished 8th in my semi final and I felt good for my competition two days later. On the day of the final I again didn’t shoot well, and was quite upset about not shooting well, I also didn’t fence as well as I could have. I swam equal to my best time, and since it was in the altitude I was pleased with the result, but I was still in the second round in the ride. It has been a really long time since I have been in the second round for riding (it is according to your position before the ride and I was 27th mainly due to my poor shooting). I didn’t have a good ride. I had a lot of difficulty getting the horse in front of my leg and he stopped on me at jump 2, where to my great embarrassment I fell off. It was a slow motion fall and I tried my hardest to stay on, resulting only in me still falling but being totally sore for the next week in all my hanging on muscles. I was furious with the horse and didn’t let go of the reins so I leapt back on as quickly as possible and attempted to finish the course. He stopped twice at jump four, even after a few good swats and again at jump five. After that he was an angel and I had no problem getting him in front of my leg. One of the problems is that I probably didn’t ride as aggressively as I should have, I should have made that reaction earlier, and the other is that he had a bad experience in the first round with the Egyptian rider. In the end I was in 28th position before running. I ran hard but had tired legs. I finished the competition in 29th place. A day that if hadn’t been so packed together with such short rest between each event, I would have thought would never end.
Two days after this we had the relay. Our relay was Kara, Elena and myself and we did great. We had a goal of finishing in the top 6, but we surprised everyone and came 4th. Third place was still a little ways off but we think we can win a medal in the next few years. It was really nice to come away from world championships with a good result and I was especially motivated to get into winter training and prepare for next season. I did have to take a two-week break though, something I hate to do when things are going well, but my body needed the break if I was to be strong again by February.
I had a few disappointments this year. One reason is because in all the years before this season I didn’t have any expectations, This was the first year where I expected things of myself and I had given myself certain standards (although I didn’t know it at the time) and the other reason is because I’m not at the level yet where I can always have five good events in one day. I’m not sure if any athlete does but I had to realize this before I could be satisfied with my season.
I’m actually really happy with what I accomplished this year though. It was disappointing to have a couple of bad days but actually I had more excellent days than ever before and I am still improving in all my events.
I won Canadian Championships, Pan American Championships, and Swiss Championships, and was 2nd in Spiez, I am the top ranked Canadian pentathlete, was 5th on the world ranking list and was part of Canada’s best relay ever, I finished 6th at the world cup final, my strongest result ever, better than my 13th in Athens because the level was actually stronger and had two other top 10 world cup results, also my best world cup results ever. I also made the final at world championships for the first time and improved my swimming and running a significant amount. It was the first year where I could make finals based on my physical events rather than my technical events.
Now I am preparing for 2007. I will need to qualify for the Pan American Games; it is the continental qualifier for North America for the Olympics in Beijing in 2008. I will need to still improve my level if I am to win this spot. One big goal for next season will be to improve my consistency in the shooting and fencing events, but of course I still plan to get faster in the swim and run.
Thank you to every one who supports me and makes it possible for me to train and compete. Pentathletes are still not supported by Sport Canada and the Canadian Olympic Committee so I really appreciate all the support I get from my family and friends and my sponsors; The Coast Harbourside Hotel and Marina in Victoria and Raymond James: Werner Investment Team. It would be in no way possible for me to do this with out this help.Career Highlights:
2006
Pan American Championships Gold Medal:
2nd Spiez, world championships qualifier,
9th, World Cup
2005
Pan American Championships Silver Medal:
2004
World Cup Final 10th
2004 Olympic Games-
World Championships,
Canadian Championships 2nd
German international competition, Leverkusan 1st
World Cup
2003
World Cup Final- Athens 16th
Canadian Championships - 1st
Pan American Games - 7th
German World Championship qualifier - 2nd
World Championships,
Spiez, world championship Qualifier - 6th
