Sheila Taormina
She made her Olympic dream possible for future triathletes
early two years of sweat, sacrifice and pain had all been for this moment.
Livonia’s Sheila Taormina had set her mind to competing in the first Olympic triathlon at the 2000 Games in Sydney, Australia, and now the dream was reality.
Taormina led the 1.5-mile swim through the choppy salt waters of Sydney Harbor, then slid a little farther back in the pack in the 24.8-mile bike race.
She knew during the 6.2 miles of running through the hilly streets of downtown Sydney that this would not be her day on the medal stand.
And a funny thing happened the moment she realized she wasn’t fated to win — Taormina smiled and laughed.
“How could I not be happy and proud of what I had accomplished?” Taormina, 32, says. “Here I was, in one of the most beautiful cities in the world, competing in the Olympics for my country, having my friends and family cheering for me. I knew that I have never been so blessed in my whole life.
“I wanted to celebrate that moment. It was joy. Pure joy.”
Taormina slapped hands and cheered with the crowd in the final mile of her race, her way of sharing her joy.
The scene of her enthusiastic final steps was repeated often around the world in TV montages of the Sydney Games, becoming a symbol of the spirit of the first triathlon.
After a review of the September 2000 event, the triathlon was made a permanent Olympic sport by the International Olympic Committee in February, and experts give Taormina partial credit for this happening.
“I have heard from so many people about how Sheila represented the good of athletics and the spirit of Games because of how she carried herself,” says Lew Kidder, an Ann Arbor resident who coaches Taormina. “So often we thought of the ugliness of some of the athletes who didn’t carry themselves with class or dignity after winning.
“Sheila didn’t win a medal, but she won the hearts of the world by being herself. Sheila gave the sport of triathlon the identity it needed both for the world and TV.”
Taormina, a 1996 gold medalist in swimming, has made spreading goodwill and motivation her post-Olympic life.
She has started a business of motivational speaking to civic groups, charities and businesses.
She’s still in daily training, saying she’s considering staying around through the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens.
Taormina is firm about making Michigan her permanent home for living and training. Most world-class triathletes don’t live in northern climates, preferring to move south for better year-round training.
Others have told her to move to improve her strength and endurance through increased outdoors training.
But Taormina sees no problem with swimming in a pool or biking indoors during the winter — it’s just part of what she’s used to.
“This is my home. Michigan is always where my family, my heart and my soul will be,” Taormina says. “I want to do good here. I see so many things I can do and be because of the Olympic experiences I’ve had.
“Olympians are just people, too. What I try to do is convince every one around me that I’m not a hero. There is a little Olympian in every one of us. You just have to connect with what makes you strong and principled and go for it.”
— Joanne Gerstner
