JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn – Four-time Olympian and gold medalist swimmer Sheila Taormina will be on the Carson-Newman campus this weekend.
She is spending Friday with speaking and teaching to the Eagles volleyball and swimming team, while on Saturday, she will be speaking to the Eagles student-athletes and the public in the Ken Sparks Athletic Complex at 11 a.m.
"The thing I like most to communicate to athletes is that when they see me up close and personal, they realize how much alike everybody is. I want them to know at that young age you don't have to super tall or made in this perfect-like body," the five-foot, three-inch Taormina said.
Taormina, a native of Livonia, Mich., competed in the: 1998, 2000, 2004 and 2008 Summer Olympics. In the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Ga., she earned her gold medal as a member of the 4x200 meter freestyle relay team.
She competed in triathlon in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia and the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece. She competed at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China in the modern pentathlon.
The swimming program is wanting to not only learn from her about the physical aspect of the sport, but also the mental and how she prepares."
"I think that, anytime you have somebody who has excelled in our sport at the level she has, not only is she a gold medalist in swimming, she's a four-time Olympian, she's a world class triathlete, she's a World Cup leader in the pentathlon," swimming assistant coach Daniel McCord said. "I think she has a full package of skill sets, both mentally and physically, what it takes to succeed at the top level. I think our goal is to bring her in and have her communicate those ideas."
Taormina expanded on that. She thinks anything is possible if you put your mind to it.
"You can do what you want to do in sport with what you've got. It depends on how much determination you've got and how much intellect you're going to use and put together a great plan," Taormina said.
Taormina's talk is open to the public Saturday morning at 11 a.m. in the Ken Sparks Athletic Complex on the Carson-Newman University campus.
