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| Canadian pentathlon athlete Kelly Fitzsimmmons is rarely caught standing still, as she juggles training and work seven days a week as she prepares for the Pan Am Games. |
Over lunch on a brisk Thursday in downtown Toronto, pentathlon competitor Kelly Fitzsimmons describes her day.
In between bites of steak, the 29-year-old Calgarian says she started with two hours of swim practice at 8:30 a.m., then went right into client meetings for her consulting business. Next came her interview with Torstar News Service, a timeslot doubling as Fitzsimmons’ lunch break. After that, she’d be working on consulting projects until the early evening, then heading to back-to-back training sessions — first a track workout, then fencing training, which wouldn’t end until around 10 p.m.
Calling Fitzsimmons’ schedule jam-packed would be an understatement.
As one of Canada’s top athletes in the modern pentathlon, an event featuring fencing, shooting, swimming, riding and cross-country running, Fitzsimmons is a master scheduler. She balances her freelance consulting work with six to seven days a week of training across five different sports, while also running an online fundraising campaign with a target of $20,000.