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After missing out on Olympic berth at home Pan Ams, modern pentathlete flies back onto Games trail
By Daniel Prinn
At the time, it was the most devastating moment of her career.
In likely the only opportunity they’d ever have to see her in a meaningful international modern pentathlon competition close to home, an enormous group of family and friends had gathered to watch Melanie McCann at the 2015 Pan Am Games, where she was favoured to clinch an Olympic berth.
But on a blistering hot afternoon in Markham, she lost a 46-second head start in the final run-shoot combined event of her five-sports-in-day discipline, and ceded the lone Olympic berth available to a Canadian to compatriot Donna Vakalis.
Now, nine months later, McCann calls the letdown a “blessing in disguise.”
“I’ve just been so hungry and and ready to perform,” explains the 26-year-old Ottawa-based athlete. “Even though it was a disappointment in 2015, there was a silver lining to it – in terms of my development as an athlete.”
McCann has enjoyed a torrid start to her 2016 season and now finds herself firmly on track to claim a berth for the Rio Games thanks to her solid international results thus far this year.
It’s a fairly complicated qualification system, but the world’s current #11 modern pentathlete has all-but-secured one of 36 total available Olympic spots based on her high global ranking.
McCann blasted out of the gate with a victory in her first event at February’s Open Spanish International in Barcelona.
“As a season opener, I ended up feeling really good,” reflects the southwestern Ontario-raised athlete who moved to Ottawa in 2010 to train under national team coach John Hawes. “It all came down to the last 100 meters. That was a really exciting start to the season for me.”
McCann followed up with a “very respectable” – and highly valuable – 7th-place showing at World Cup #1 in Egypt.
Her 28th-place finish in a monstrous downpour at World Cup #2 in Rio wasn’t as satisfying. The equestrian event, where athletes draw an unknown horse at random and have 20 minutes to warm up, was McCann’s “biggest struggle” at the competition serving as the Rio test event.
“I didn’t mesh with the horse and we weren’t really a good match,” recounts McCann, who placed 31st in equestrian. “Unfortunately I had a few refusals and that cost me a lot of points.”
Her result at the Mar. 30-Apr. 3 World Cup #3 in Rome was a stronger 20th-place finish.
“To turn around in Rome and have a perfect ride was definitely a confidence booster. It was a bit of a comeback after Rio,” indicates McCann, who had a perfect equestrian score but an uncharacteristically poor fencing showing. “Getting all five events right on the same day is usually the biggest challenge.”
McCann now hopes that “my last two months go as smoothly as the first (few) months have.” On the topic of whether she expects to make a second consecutive Olympic appearance, McCann is unwavering.
“Don’t be silly,” laughs McCann, who says the pressure of having to qualify for the Olympics carries an aspect that “you love and thrive on.”
At London 2012, McCann excelled on the big stage, placing 11th in her Olympic debut at age 22, in a sport that takes years to master somewhat unrelated disciplines.
“That was an absolute dream come true,” recalls McCann, who was introduced to the sport when she was a teenaged competitive swimmer and high school cross-country runner. “To set a new Canadian national Olympic record was just bliss. It was a feeling like no other. And I’m still chasing that feeling.”
McCann now focuses on improving “each event in a little way, whether mentally or physically,” every day in training.
“I’d love to improve on my finish in London,” she notes. “Obviously a medal is possible and (it) would be a dream come true if I could bring home a medal for Canada.”