Post by lacquement on Jul 15, 2004 20:51:30 GMT -5
from the Toronto Star www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1089843028837&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154
Born tenacious, bound for Olympics
Runner takes aim at 5,000 metres race
At 30 days, showed Herculean strength
RANDY STARKMAN
SPORTS REPORTER
VICTORIA—Emilie Mondor's grandparents couldn't bear to visit the hospital to see their sickly newborn granddaughter.
She wasn't expected to live. Born two months premature with an undeveloped trachea, she was hooked up to a ventilator to help her breathe. She had a tube down her throat and many wires leading to monitors taped to her sunken chest.
But then a remarkable thing happened. Just 30 days into this world, Mondor ripped off all the wires and tubing with her tiny hands.
"The doctor couldn't believe it, because no baby is usually strong enough to take those things out," Mondor said.
A very unique baby with a fierce will to live has developed into a remarkable young athlete with an unyielding desire to push her limits.
Mondor will get the chance to do that at the very highest level after confirming her berth on the Canadian Olympic team with an easy win in the women's 5,000 metres at the track and field trials this past weekend.
The 23-year-old from Mascouche, Que., a suburb of Montreal, is a biological sciences major who believes in Darwin's survival-of-the-fittest theory — one of her tattoos reads "Natural Selection." It's an approach that suits the battle she faces in trying to progress in an event dominated by African and Japanese runners.
Among those impressed by Mondor is world champion hurdler Perdita Felicien of Pickering.
"She's one of those people who won't take `No' for an answer," Felicien said. "She's going to run — and she's going to run fast. It's amazing because she's so young and the people she's competing against are so veteran and seasoned."
In one of Mondor's first competitions, she finished 10th in the junior women's event at the world cross-country championships. It was one of the best Canadian results ever and the best placing by a non-African. The Morocco race proved a real culture shock.
"If you can understand what it does to a girl at 16 to see that the nine girls ahead of you are without shoes and they just run their guts out," said Mondor. "That just touched me. That's what is human, that's fighting."
That event also spurred Mondor to get her first tattoo, a wolf, on her right shoulder blade. The tattoos are something she now gets to mark significant steps in her life. She has four so far and she'll get the Olympic rings on the back of the base of her neck before leaving for Athens.
Mondor hopes to study wolves as part of her work once she graduates from Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, where's she now based.
"Wolves have an amazing hierarchal society," she said. "There are leaders but it's not based on politics and it's not based on war. A wolf will never kill another wolf.
"It's also a community where there's family support and family structure that is so important. Two wolves will stay together forever. They'll do everything for their kids and society."
Mondor is a lone wolf. She trains mostly alone and says she didn't really have many friends as a teen, because of her single-mindedness about training.
She can't understand people who spend nights in pubs. She'd much rather be running through the forest with only her thoughts to keep her company.
"It's the time when I can think. I've noticed that when I'm always with people I'm missing something, that little time when I'm by myself and I have an interior life."
Mondor finds it hard to summon reverence for today's star athletes. She looks to the past for her heroes. She has a special interest in Greek mythology and can think of no greater gift than competing in her first Summer Games in the birthplace of the modern Olympics.
"I grew up watching all those movies about 100 years of the Olympic Games," Mondor said. "It's funny because now I can't feel the same about the heroes now. My idols are still the people who've been the pioneers. One of my idols still is Lynn Williams. I broke her record, but that doesn't change anything. She's still my idol."
Mondor also confesses to being a big fan of Hercules. "He's one of my favourites," she said. "He's all about hard work."
The same could be said of Mondor, although she packs her strength into a whippet-like 5-foot-2, 120-pound frame. The women's 5,000 metres is all about pain. The way it's run these days, it's like one long sprint.
"You're suffering every day," Mondor said. "I'm not suffering because I'm crazy. I'm suffering because I need to do it and I need to push my limits and because every night I want to arrive at home and say I deserve to rest now, I did what I have to do, I did my job."
Mondor was 12th at last year's world championships while becoming the first Canadian woman to break the 15-minute barrier in the 5,000 metres. She would be doing well to make the top 10 in Athens.
She's in this for the long haul. Mondor knows this isn't the Olympics where she'll be at her peak; that's likely to come at the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing. She doesn't see herself as a future world record-breaker but does believe medals at the big events are possible in the future.
Mondor, who has a modest contract with adidas, is becoming something of a celebrity in Mascouche, Que., also home to Los Angeles Dodgers star reliever Eric Gagne. A billboard in town wishes her luck, where among those cheering her on will be her parents, François and Nicole.
"I can't explain (her drive) but it is in her," François said. "For us, the principal thing we have done is to support her but we don't have to direct her. She does the things she likes to do."
She heads to Greece wearing a prized silver necklace given to her by her parents, a runner weaved into the Olympic rings. It was made especially for her.
"It's impossible to find and I will be bragging in Athens because I know all girls in the community of running will be going `Oh, where did you find it?'" Mondor said.
Asked jokingly if she might mass produce them to sell in the Olympic athletes' village, Mondor replied: "We destroyed the cast, because I'm that kind of person. No copying. That's mine and nobody will have that."
Broke the mould. Just like they did when they made Emilie Mondor.
Born tenacious, bound for Olympics
Runner takes aim at 5,000 metres race
At 30 days, showed Herculean strength
RANDY STARKMAN
SPORTS REPORTER
VICTORIA—Emilie Mondor's grandparents couldn't bear to visit the hospital to see their sickly newborn granddaughter.
She wasn't expected to live. Born two months premature with an undeveloped trachea, she was hooked up to a ventilator to help her breathe. She had a tube down her throat and many wires leading to monitors taped to her sunken chest.
But then a remarkable thing happened. Just 30 days into this world, Mondor ripped off all the wires and tubing with her tiny hands.
"The doctor couldn't believe it, because no baby is usually strong enough to take those things out," Mondor said.
A very unique baby with a fierce will to live has developed into a remarkable young athlete with an unyielding desire to push her limits.
Mondor will get the chance to do that at the very highest level after confirming her berth on the Canadian Olympic team with an easy win in the women's 5,000 metres at the track and field trials this past weekend.
The 23-year-old from Mascouche, Que., a suburb of Montreal, is a biological sciences major who believes in Darwin's survival-of-the-fittest theory — one of her tattoos reads "Natural Selection." It's an approach that suits the battle she faces in trying to progress in an event dominated by African and Japanese runners.
Among those impressed by Mondor is world champion hurdler Perdita Felicien of Pickering.
"She's one of those people who won't take `No' for an answer," Felicien said. "She's going to run — and she's going to run fast. It's amazing because she's so young and the people she's competing against are so veteran and seasoned."
In one of Mondor's first competitions, she finished 10th in the junior women's event at the world cross-country championships. It was one of the best Canadian results ever and the best placing by a non-African. The Morocco race proved a real culture shock.
"If you can understand what it does to a girl at 16 to see that the nine girls ahead of you are without shoes and they just run their guts out," said Mondor. "That just touched me. That's what is human, that's fighting."
That event also spurred Mondor to get her first tattoo, a wolf, on her right shoulder blade. The tattoos are something she now gets to mark significant steps in her life. She has four so far and she'll get the Olympic rings on the back of the base of her neck before leaving for Athens.
Mondor hopes to study wolves as part of her work once she graduates from Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, where's she now based.
"Wolves have an amazing hierarchal society," she said. "There are leaders but it's not based on politics and it's not based on war. A wolf will never kill another wolf.
"It's also a community where there's family support and family structure that is so important. Two wolves will stay together forever. They'll do everything for their kids and society."
Mondor is a lone wolf. She trains mostly alone and says she didn't really have many friends as a teen, because of her single-mindedness about training.
She can't understand people who spend nights in pubs. She'd much rather be running through the forest with only her thoughts to keep her company.
"It's the time when I can think. I've noticed that when I'm always with people I'm missing something, that little time when I'm by myself and I have an interior life."
Mondor finds it hard to summon reverence for today's star athletes. She looks to the past for her heroes. She has a special interest in Greek mythology and can think of no greater gift than competing in her first Summer Games in the birthplace of the modern Olympics.
"I grew up watching all those movies about 100 years of the Olympic Games," Mondor said. "It's funny because now I can't feel the same about the heroes now. My idols are still the people who've been the pioneers. One of my idols still is Lynn Williams. I broke her record, but that doesn't change anything. She's still my idol."
Mondor also confesses to being a big fan of Hercules. "He's one of my favourites," she said. "He's all about hard work."
The same could be said of Mondor, although she packs her strength into a whippet-like 5-foot-2, 120-pound frame. The women's 5,000 metres is all about pain. The way it's run these days, it's like one long sprint.
"You're suffering every day," Mondor said. "I'm not suffering because I'm crazy. I'm suffering because I need to do it and I need to push my limits and because every night I want to arrive at home and say I deserve to rest now, I did what I have to do, I did my job."
Mondor was 12th at last year's world championships while becoming the first Canadian woman to break the 15-minute barrier in the 5,000 metres. She would be doing well to make the top 10 in Athens.
She's in this for the long haul. Mondor knows this isn't the Olympics where she'll be at her peak; that's likely to come at the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing. She doesn't see herself as a future world record-breaker but does believe medals at the big events are possible in the future.
Mondor, who has a modest contract with adidas, is becoming something of a celebrity in Mascouche, Que., also home to Los Angeles Dodgers star reliever Eric Gagne. A billboard in town wishes her luck, where among those cheering her on will be her parents, François and Nicole.
"I can't explain (her drive) but it is in her," François said. "For us, the principal thing we have done is to support her but we don't have to direct her. She does the things she likes to do."
She heads to Greece wearing a prized silver necklace given to her by her parents, a runner weaved into the Olympic rings. It was made especially for her.
"It's impossible to find and I will be bragging in Athens because I know all girls in the community of running will be going `Oh, where did you find it?'" Mondor said.
Asked jokingly if she might mass produce them to sell in the Olympic athletes' village, Mondor replied: "We destroyed the cast, because I'm that kind of person. No copying. That's mine and nobody will have that."
Broke the mould. Just like they did when they made Emilie Mondor.