Grant-A-Week WINNER Sarah Monk & Theresa Schlachter - Bobsleigh
"Life
is a BLAST going down hill FAST"!!
The sport of bobsleigh requires
athletes to be powerful and explosive yet they must be able to
harness that aggression to focus on piloting 200 kg of fiberglass
and metal down an icy track at speeds reaching 120 km/hr.
This is what the Canadian Women's
Bobsleigh team of Sarah Monk and Teresa Schlachter have set out
to do… be the fastest women on ice and with the help of the CAAWS
Nike grant they are a little closer to that goal.
Their first season as a team
was the 1998/99 season where a lot of: "unknowns and firsts" were
accomplished.
The
1998/99 season took the team of Monk and Schlachter to Park
City, Utah where they finished 4th in their first ever international
race.
Sarah Monk was new to the sport
of bobsleigh as a driver…she had spent 3 seasons as a brakeman
learning the sport and was ready to take on the challenge of driving
a sleigh. Completing a driver's school in November of 1997 Sarah
participated in races on her local track at Canada Olympic Park
in Calgary and in one international race at Park City, Utah -
despite finishing near the bottom of the pack being in the race
was a thrill for her. Sarah has been an avid participant in a
range of sports but has a passion for the speed and finesse of
piloting a bobsleigh. Sarah works full time as an office administrator
for a Calgary based risk advisory company.
Before discovering speed and
excitement Teresa Schlachter spent the past 15 years as an athlete
competing in Track and Field, completing a degree in Physical
Education at the University of Saskatchewan, raising a family
and working as a manager of Recreation and Culture for the Town
of Canmore. The opportunity to become involved in a sport in the
embryonic stages has been an exciting and challenging one for
Teresa as she strives to maintain a balance between work and family
commitments and training and competing in her new sport.
The 1998/99 season took the team
of Monk and Schlachter to Park City, Utah where they finished
4th in their first ever international race. They participated
in World Cup races on their home track in Calgary, Winterburg,
Germany, Igls, Austria and Konnigsee, Germany. Finishing the season
with a 6th place ranking and a Canada 1 designation.
The 1999/2000 season will see
these athletes travel to Norway, Germany and Austria and also
compete in Calgary. This season the first ever World Championships
for women's bobsleigh will be held in Germany… an event that both
Sarah and Teresa are looking forward to….and looking forward to
bring home a championship medal.
Being awarded a grant tGrants, Nike Canada, CAAWS, girls body image,where to play sports,
girls self-esteem, girls soccer, girls cycling, girls and nutrition, nutrition for active girls, Canadian Association for women and sport, girls@play, snowboarding, skating, boarding, girl site, sports girl, extreme girl, mountain biking, skateboards, surfboards, X Games">
Canadian
Association for the Advancement of Women and Sport and Physical
Activity contact
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