Michigan Olympian shares stories of competition at CMU

Those that attended Olympic gold medalist Sheila Taormina’s speech Monday earned the chance to hold her 1996 Olympic gold medal.

“I’m actually excited we have a small group,” Taormina said. “Because now, I can do things I couldn’t have done with a larger group.”

A small crowd gathered Monday night before Taormina in Warriner Hall’s Plachta Auditorium to hear her stories about the Olympic journey through training, competing and life after the Olympics.

Because of the smaller group, she also passed around the four-time Olympian’s memorabilia from the 2008 Beijing Olympics pentathlon. The crowd marveled at her laser-bathing suit, an unloaded air pistol and a modern épée, a sword used in fencing.

Taormina, a Livonia native, was brought by Program Board and former Phi Sigma Epsilon members called the Phi Sigs of the ’50s. She is a 1996 gold medalist for the United States 4x200m freestyle relay team. In 2000 and 2004, she competed as a triathlete and, in 2008, she placed 19th in the modern pentathlon.

Sponsors told Taormina she was too old to compete in 2008 and, also, since she had no experience in three out of five sports, she probably would not even qualify for the team.

She said she would get anxiety before and during competition. The anxiety caused her entire body to shake, and she could not focus on her target during the pistol shooting event.

“When doing anything under pressure, the mind does amazingly horrible things,” Toarmina said, partly joking.

‘Inspiring’

Program Board Lecture Chairwoman and Farmington Hills junior Nikki Burnstein said it was a good crowd, but she hoped for a little more.

“I thought Sheila was a very good speaker,” Burnstein said. “She did a great job involving her audience.”

Arizona senior Heather Warczinsky said she really enjoyed seeing the Michigan native speak.

“It was inspiring,” Warczinsky said.

Warczinsky originally intended only to accompany her sister, New Baltimore senior Heidi Warczinsky, who had to write a paper for class about the event. Heather said she left very enthused.

“My favorite part was when she told the story of how her sister inspired her during her fencing competition,” Heather said. “I sometimes do the same for Heidi.”