Taormina won a gold medal in swimming at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Ga. as a member of the women’s 4x200m Freestyle Relay Team (setting an Olympic record in the process with Trina Jackson, Christina Teusche and Jenny Thompson). After retiring from swimming she took up triathlon and made both the 2000 and 2004 U.S. Olympic Teams, finishing sixth and 23rd respectively in Sydney, Australia and Athens, Greece. Taormina took up the sport of modern pentathlon in June of 2005 and quickly found herself at the top of the U.S. rankings and among the top ten in the world.The sport of modern pentathlon consists of five disciplines, three of which Taormina had never done prior to taking up the sport. Now 39 years old, Taormina had the swimming and running down from her time in her previous sports, but shooting, fencing and riding were all disciplines that she had to learn and she did so quickly. Taormina’s top finish on the Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne (UIPM) World Cup Circuit came in Cairo, Egypt in 2007 with a silver medal.
(Photo of Shelia Taormina by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)
