PENTATHLON:It's tough enough becoming an Olympic-level athlete in, say, fencing. But to compete in running, swimming, horse-riding and shooting as well, and on the same day, takes huge levels of ambition and perseverance. Fortunately, Ireland's modern pentathlon hopeful Natalya Coyle has both, discovers IAN O'RIORDAN
O YOU WANT me to get my gun?”
Not the most auspicious start to an interview, you’d think, although it could have been worse: Natalya Coyle could also have threatened her sword.
“You should try getting through airport security,” she tells me later, all her weapons now packed into a long, black sports bag. “I was nearly arrested in China last month, and had to call my dad, frantically. I suppose when you’ve got a sword and mask and a gun in your bag, people get suspicious. The secret is to arrive for the flight very, very early.”
It’s important to explain here that Coyle is not a character from Mission: Impossible, but rather a rising star in the modern pentathlon – one of the original, and purposely designed, Olympic events. It’s arguably the toughest too, given it’s actually a combination of five events – fencing, swimming, horse riding, running and shooting – all completed in one day, and intended to simulate the demands of a 19th-century cavalry soldier behind enemy lines (without the killing part).
“So where’s your horse?” I ask, half-jokingly. We’re at Santry Stadium, where Coyle has just finished an hour-long session of running and shooting, with two hours of fencing to follow. “Sure maybe you could run up to Ballymun and jump on one of the strays?” Actually, that’s not as silly as it sounds: the modern pentathlon has some strange rules, one of which is that all competitors must draw a horse randomly out of a hat. They then get just 20 minutes to practise on it before off they go, over 15 jumps.
“Oh yes, sometimes it can get a little hairy,” says Coyle. “At a competition in Poland a few weeks ago, I drew a horse that had just arrived from Warsaw, having travelled all night. She was crazy. Luckily I can ride quite well, although I still had a lot of trouble controlling it. The girl who rode the horse after me got on to the thing and was thrown right off. So there’s a lot of luck in what horse you draw, although it helps a lot if you’re a strong rider.”
Indeed, that’s where it all began. Growing up in Tara, Co Meath, Coyle joined a pony club, purely as a hobby. At age 15 she tried her first tetrathlon, which is a combination of riding, running, swimming and shooting. “And I was really bad,” she says. “But I’m just very competitive by nature, just wanted to get better. Then I made a junior international team, and I really caught the competitive bug. I wanted to see what else was out there, how good I could be.
“My friend Eanna Bailey told me about the modern pentathlon, and it seemed like an obvious progression. I was in fourth year in school when I did my first competition, in Millfield in England, and that showed me this is not an event you can mess around with. After that I started to train seriously.”
In her first year of major competition, in 2010, she progressed beyond all expectations to become the first Irish representative in modern pentathlon’s World Cup final. It’s an exclusive event, where only the top 36 in the world are invited. Only 20 years old, Coyle has repeated that feat this year, and is in London this weekend for the 2011 World Cup final, which effectively acts as a dress rehearsal for the London Olympics, just over a year away. There are no guarantees in what is a highly competitive and unpredictable sport, but if Coyle simply maintains this form over the next 12 months, then Olympic qualification is the reward in wait.
“Which is just as well,” she says, “because I applied for tickets anyway, in the lottery, just to see what I’d get. And I got nothing. Although all the family got tickets. Maybe that’s a sign of something. But I can’t get carried away either. There’s a long way to go.”
All this has been achieved against the backdrop of her university commitments, and in a country where modern pentathlon is still something of a novelty. It’s not like she’s come from a great sporting background either: her father Ray “apparently” once ran marathons, but is better known in the crisp business, as the head of Largo Foods.
Coyle has just finished her second year of a business-economics degree at Trinity (“just passed my exams”), and admits this hasn’t been all smooth sailing. In fact, Trinity made the unprecedented decision of allowing her to break up her course modules, effectively splitting the term, and also deferred certain exams to allow her to compete abroad in key events, especially with the London Olympics in mind.
“College has been very supportive, and so has the Irish Institute of Sport, which worked with Trinity to make this happen. It just wasn’t possible to combine all the training with all the lectures. I’m also very lucky to have got a scholarship through the Olympic Council of Ireland, and this year got a Sports Council grant as well [of €12,000]. But there are so many overheads to compete at the highest level, mainly the travel. For years my parents had to foot the bill. But I could always use a sponsor.”
Training for five events also requires an extensive backroom team, and Coyle works with five individual event coaches, all overseen by Lindsey Weedon, the elite manager of the Modern Pentathlon Association of Ireland. She’s also benefited from some sports psychology from Liam Moggan, particularly in coping with the need to maintain consistency over the five events.
“The competition day is incredibly demanding. You could start at seven in the morning, and go until six that evening. Halfway through you’re wondering how you’ll finish. Much of it is about ensuring proper nutrition, and learning to sleep sitting up. The fencing is first up, and all 36 competitors have to fence each other. That does take a while, and if you start losing one or two bouts you can very quickly fall into a hole. That’s where the psychology kicks in. The swim is 200m, and purely time based, and then comes the riding. It’s important to start refuelling at this stage because you need to maintain your energy for the shooting and the running.”
This makes for an exciting climax to the modern pentathlon, and since the Beijing Olympics in 2008, the shooting and running have been combined to make that even more decisive: competitors must now race the three-kilometre cross-country course, while stopping intermittently to shoot at the fixed target, 10m away. Imagine running up the stairs and then trying to thread a needle: “The secret is to hold your breath as you fire.”
So that’s the how, but what about the why? Some people might say there are more important things to be doing in college than studying and training the whole time – but for Coyle the parties can wait, at least until after the London Olympics.
“All my friends are involved in sport, so I don’t feel I’m missing out on anything. I don’t even see any sacrifice. Some people view the modern pentathlon as an elitist sport, but you meet people from all backgrounds. You don’t even need to own a horse. You never get bored with the training either. I don’t think I could just run, or swim or ride every day.
“And the reward really is the satisfaction of competing well. I love when all the training pays off. Some of the events have decent prize money, but I’m not at that stage yet. But it’s not golf. You don’t get into modern pentathlon for the money. Actually, if Rory McIlroy wants to send some of his winnings my way, I’d be very grateful.”
Natalya Coyle’s progress can be followed on Twitter, @Natalyacoyle
A week in the life: Natalya Coyle
MONDAY
Morning: 75-min run, lectures.
Afternoon: One hour of shooting, lectures, two hours of swimming.
TUESDAY
Morning: One hour in gym, one-
hour run, lectures, one hour of shooting.
Afternoon: 2.5 hours of fencing, two hours of swimming.
WEDNESDAY
Morning: One-hour fencing lesson, one hour running and shooting; lectures.
Afternoon: Nap; two-hour swim.
THURSDAY
Morning: Lectures.
Afternoon: Two hours of running and drills; two hours of fencing.
FRIDAY
Morning: Two hours in the gym, lectures.
Afternoon: One hour of shooting, one-hour swim.
SATURDAY
Morning: One hour of shooting and hard running.
Afternoon: One-hour swim.
SUNDAY
Rest! Home to Tara for my mother's cooking.
Total training hours: 25
Total lecture hours: 20