Nationality Canada Role Olympic athlete Residence Langley City, Canada Name Monica Pinette | Coached by Philipp Waeffler Weight 59 kg Sport Modern pentathlon Height 1.76 m | |
Club Fraser Valley Modern Pentathlon Association | ||
The journey monica pinette
Monica Pinette (born February 5, 1977) is a two-time Olympic modern pentathlete from Canada. She merely described herself as a "true trailblazer" for her demanding sport, being one of the first female Canadian modern pentathletes, and the only athlete of an aboriginal descent (Metis) to compete at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. Not only was Pinette the first athlete of aboriginal descent to compete at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, she gave Canada's best recorded performance in the modern pentathlon to date, coming in 13th place overall.
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Pinette was born in the city of Vancouver and grew up in Langley, British Columbia. Pinette started out her sporting career as a member of the Pony Club in Vancouver at the age of twenty, and has excelled in modern pentathlon through her participation in different local clubs for swimming, shooting, fencing, and horse-riding (which was arguably her strongest discipline). Pinette provides a unique challenge for her opponents as she is left handed, a rarity in the sport of fencing. She made her international debut at the 2002 and 2003 World Championships, and eventually competed at the 2003 Pan American Games in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, where she finished seventh. Following her well-accomplished results, Pinette qualified for the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, along with her compatriot Kara Grant, and made their national debut in the women's event. With her strongest performance in the fencing segment, Pinette finished successfully in thirteenth place, the highest position being achieved by a Canadian modern pentathlete, male or female, in Olympic history.
Pinette continued to accomplish a fourth-place finish for the team relay at the 2006 World Modern Pentathlon Championships in Guatemala City, Guatemala, and also, her first medal by winning gold at the Pan American Championships in the same year. She also added her silver medal at the 2007 Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, automatically received her qualifying berth for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. At the Olympics, Pinette finished in a disheartening twenty-seventh place, following her poor performance in the last three sporting segments.
Pinette graduated from the University of Victoria with the bachelor of arts degree in English, and earned a Diploma in Journalism and Photojournalism from the Western Academy of Photography. She is also previously coached by her husband Philipp Waeffler, 1996 Olympic modern pentathlete from Switzerland. Pinette describes the dynamic of having her husband and coach be the same person as having "Two Philipps" and admits that she has to separate her husband from coach in order to avoid getting frustrated. In 2009, Monica Pinette received the British Columbia Premier's Award. She received a National Aboriginal Achievement Award, now known as the Indspire Awards in the sport category in 2010. Pinette admits she was surprised to have won such an award, as pentathlon is such a small sport, and usually lacks coverage and attention within the media.
Currently, Monica Pinette is a retired pentathlete and is working towards raising awareness for aboriginal athletes in Canada as well as giving advice on how to live a healthy lifestyle, specifically as an aboriginal person. She contributed to the creation of a booklet titled Growing Up Healthy that encourages how to live a healthy lifestyle for First Nations parents in British Columbia. Pinette has a son named Bruno.