Taormina has already competed in the Olympic Games in the sports of swimming and triathlon. She won a gold medal in swimming at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Ga., swimming the third leg of the 800m freestyle relay. She finished sixth and 23rd, respectively, in the triathlon at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia and the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece. Taormina's top modern pentathlon World Cup performance came in March 2007 when she won the silver medal at World Cup #2 in Cairo, Egypt.
Taormina posted a total score of 5,436 total modern pentathlon points to finish ninth. Michelle "Mickey" Kelly (Chatham, N.Y./Colorado Springs, Colo./U.S. Army) and Eli Bremer (Monument, Colo./Colorado Springs, Colo./U.S. Air Force) both finished in 29th place in the finals. Kelly and Bremer each earned a berth to the 2008 Olympic Games with their performances at the 2007 Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in July.
Fifteen year-old Margaux Isaksen (Fayetteville, Ark./Colorado Springs, Colo.), Emily Shertzer (Hershey, Penn./Colorado Springs, Colo.), Dennis Bowsher (Dallas, Texas/Colorado Springs, Colo./U.S. Army), Niul Manske (Colorado Springs, Colo./U.S. Army) and Sam Sacksen (Somerset, Pa./Colorado Springs, Colo.) all failed to reach the final.
As was the case with the 2007 Pan American Games, the 2007 World Modern Pentathlon Championships was an Olympic qualifying event. Athletes that finished in the top three of the final automatically earned an Olympic berth. Athletes still have four more opportunities to qualify for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China. The gold medal winners at the 2007 World Cup Final, September 15-16 in Beijing, China earn an automatic Olympic berth, as will the top three finishers at the 2008 World Championships next May. The remaining seven Olympic slots will be determined by the World Cup ranking from the Olympic qualifying season, June 2007 through June 1, 2008.
