Modern Pentathlon / en #Rio2016: U of T's Donna Vakalis competes in modern pentathlon /news/rio2016-u-t-s-donna-vakalis-competes-modern-pentathlon <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">#Rio2016: U of T's Donna Vakalis competes in modern pentathlon</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2016-08-19-_DonnaVakalis_005.jpg?h=2fe880c3&amp;itok=nnUNt8xk 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/2016-08-19-_DonnaVakalis_005.jpg?h=2fe880c3&amp;itok=OmS_rw6w 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/2016-08-19-_DonnaVakalis_005.jpg?h=2fe880c3&amp;itok=hbjzGNrv 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2016-08-19-_DonnaVakalis_005.jpg?h=2fe880c3&amp;itok=nnUNt8xk" alt> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>lanthierj</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2016-08-19T13:11:03-04:00" title="Friday, August 19, 2016 - 13:11" class="datetime">Fri, 08/19/2016 - 13:11</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">Donna Vakalis completed her masters in Architecture at U of T in 2009 and is now working on her PhD in the Faculty of Applied Science &amp; Engineering</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/global-lens" hreflang="en">Global Lens</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/rio" hreflang="en">Rio</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/rio2016" hreflang="en">#Rio2016</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/olympics" hreflang="en">Olympics</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/modern-pentathlon" hreflang="en">Modern Pentathlon</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>While working on her&nbsp;PhD&nbsp;in the Faculty of Applied Science &amp; Engineering, modern pentathlete&nbsp;<a href="http://www.thisisdonna.com/"><strong>Donna Vakalis</strong></a>&nbsp;fences four times a&nbsp;week and swims five times a&nbsp;week. She shoots four times a week and runs five times a week.</p> <p>She even&nbsp;rides twice a month.&nbsp;</p> <p>Now, all that training&nbsp;comes down to a gruelling two days' worth of&nbsp;events for the&nbsp;last of the&nbsp;ؿζSM athletes to&nbsp;compete&nbsp;in Rio.</p> <p>Vakalis, who competed in the 2015 world championships in Germany, placed fourth in&nbsp;the <a href="/news/table-tennis-trampoline-track-and-more-u-t-athletes-toronto-2015-pan-amparapan-am-games">Toronto 2015 Pan Am/Parapan Am Games</a>.&nbsp;An alumna of U of T's&nbsp;<a href="https://daniels.utoronto.ca/">John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design</a>,&nbsp;Vakalis began her PhD after competing in the 2012 Olympics in London.&nbsp;</p> <h2><a href="/news/u-t-olympics-meet-donna-vakalis">Read about Vakalis in London</a></h2> <p>When she's not training, Vakalis studies the impact of indoor building environments on public health and productivity, under the supervision of civil engineering professors <strong>Heather MacLean </strong>and <strong>Jeffrey Siegel</strong>.&nbsp;</p> <h2><a href="http://www.metronews.ca/news/toronto/2016/08/03/juggling-act-essential-to-rio-success-for-toronto-athlete.html">Read the <em>Metro</em> article about Vakalis</a></h2> <p>Before she left, she spoke&nbsp;with Matt Galloway of CBC Radio's Metro Morning.&nbsp;</p> <p>"Most of us can barely focus on one thing, let alone be good at that one thing, let alone be good at five different things," Galloway told Vakalis. "What did it take for you to try to nail all of these different sports?"</p> <p>"it is a little bit of a different mindset," Vakalis said, because the athlete's goal can't be to "be the very best you can be at that one sport" but&nbsp;"there is something appealing about trying to optimize multiple goals. So for anyone who has multiple passions, I&nbsp;think they can relate to this, when you want to be&nbsp;the best parent or&nbsp;the best friend, and also the best at work and also the best in your hobby –&nbsp;there's something really fun about&nbsp;optimizing them all."</p> <p>Fencing is her toughest event, Vakalis said, adding&nbsp;that she learned it last and finds it a challenging combination of tactics and athleticism, particularly given the unpredictability of the opponent.</p> <p>"People say it's a little like chess and track combined together."</p> <h2><a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/programs/metromorning/pentahlete-1.3683521">Listen to the complete <em>Metro Morning</em>&nbsp;interview</a></h2> <p>You can <a href="http://olympics.cbc.ca/schedules/sport=mp/day=2016-08-18/index.html?intcmp=sr-bysport-byday">watch Vakalis compete August 18 and 19 on CBC</a>&nbsp;–&nbsp;and with so many faculty, staff, students and alumni cheering Vakalis on, civil engineering's <strong>Keenan Dixon</strong> is also live-tweeting her events.</p> <p>“Donna is such an impressive student and athlete, the whole department is so proud of her,” says Civil Engineering Communications Coordinator Dixon. “We’ll all be watching, cheering and supporting her at every stage of the competition!”</p> <p>See some of the social media highlights in the Storify below:</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <div class="storify"><iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="no" height="750" src="//storify.com/uoftcivmin/donna-vakalis/embed?border=false" width="100%"></iframe><script src="//storify.com/uoftcivmin/donna-vakalis.js?border=false"></script><noscript>[<a href="https://storify.com/uoftcivmin/donna-vakalis" target="_blank">View the story "Donna Vakalis going for gold in Rio!" on Storify</a>]</noscript></div> <p>&nbsp;</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Fri, 19 Aug 2016 17:11:03 +0000 lanthierj 100203 at