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Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Fence Around The World
Western Arkansas, AR
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Margaux Isaksen is only 16 but has competed in Mexico, Spain, Portugal, England, Egypt, the Czech Republic and Hungary.
On those rare moments when she gets to stand still long enough to think about it, even Margaux Isaksen is just a little bit overwhelmed.
After all, how many 16-year-olds have left home and family to live and train at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. How many have competed in Mexico, Spain, Portugal, England, Egypt, the Czech Republic and Hungary within a two-year span?
And how many will be representing their country this summer as part of the U.S. Modern Pentathlon team at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing?
So if Isaksen, a Fayetteville native who lives with her mother, stepfather and younger sister on a farm in Washington County when not in Colorado Springs, seems slightly dazed when talking about her experiences, who can blame her?
“I really haven’t had a chance to stop and think about it,“ Isaksen said. “But I guess I’m really just a little in shock.”
Some of that may be as a result of her meteorite rise through the U.S. Pentathlon ranks. A complete newcomer to the sport three years ago, Isaksen was prompted to try her hand at the fencing, shooting, riding, running and swimming competitions that make up the Modern Pentathlon by Neal Picken, the owner of Arkansas Fencing Academy in Springdale.
Isaksen had come to the Academy on a lark when her younger sister, Isabella, expressed an interest in fencing. When she showed promise as a fencer, Picken talked her into trying the pentathlon.
“The thing is, fencing is probably my worst sport,” Isaksen said, laughing. “It’s the one I have to work hardest at. I already ran, swam and rode, and I took to shooting, but fencing was something I really had to work at.
If results are any indication, she works pretty hard at all five of the disciplines. Isaksen, who caught the eye of U.S. Pentathlon officials when she attended a camp for the event, was asked to move to Colorado Springs to train with the team when she was 15.
With few pentathlon competitions in the United States, Olympic team members are chosen based on their ranking in World Cup competitions. Isaksen, who won the senior, junior and youth titles at the 2007 U.S. National Championships, shot up in the Olympic team race with a 13th-place finish at a World Cup event in Cairo, Egypt, in February of 2008 before taking the silver at a World Cup event in Mexico City.
She sealed her place on the U.S. Olympic team with a strong showing at the World Championships in May at Budapest , Hungary.
“I made the championships, but I didn’t do very well the last day, and I wound up 29th,” Isaksen said. “I wasn’t sure I had made (the Olympic team), but I got a call later and my mom got a letter.”
After a brief stop in Fayetteville in June, Isaksen returned to Colorado Springs, where she’ll continue to train leading up to Beijing. She’ll take part in the opening ceremonies Aug. 8 before traveling with the pentathlon team to Singapore to work out before returning for her two-day competition Aug. 21-22.
And after Beijing? Well, Isaksen’s not sure. She can return to Colorado Springs to train for World Cup competitions and the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. She says she’s already looking forward to a World Cup competition next year in Atlanta. And she’d like to spend some time at home in Fayetteville. But for right now, it’s enough for her to think about the 2008 Games and how far and how fast she’s come.
“I really just haven’t thought about it much,” Isaksen said. “Right now, I’m just living in the moment.”
Her Olympic moment.
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