As the rest of us sit back on our reclining chairs watching our favorite sports events this weekend, one Kane County athlete will be pursuing personal bests in the 2016 UIPM World Cup in Rome, Italy.

Ted Lauzen, a Marine combat pilot, 2003 graduate of Marmion Academy and son of Sarah and Kane County Board Chairman Chris Lauzen, is competing for Team USA in the modern pentathlon event of the Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne World Cup #3 in Rome, a step to earn qualifying points in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. World Cup #3 competition runs through Monday, April 4, and is a prelude to the May 6-8 World Cup Final in Sarasota/Bradenton.

You can watch the Combined Event of each final of the World Cup #3 live at UIPM’s new online TV channel uipmtv.org. For up-to-date results of all competitions, go to pentathlon.org.

Lauzen has been competing in the modern pentathlon since late 2014, after a coach invited him to try out with Team USA .

At Marmion, Lauzen had been a multi-sport athlete, competing in football, cross country, track, fencing and swimming. He was a three-time state finalist in track, placed sixth at the 2003 Midwest Championship and was a modern pentathlon competitor in the U.S. Junior Nationals.

After Marmion, Lauzen attended Duke University, where he competed in the epee, placed 31st at the Mid-Atlantic/South Regional Championships, was named to the ACC Academic Honor Roll for three straight years and graduated magna cum laude in 2007.

After school, he was commissioned as an officer in the United States Marine Corps, completed flight school and earned his “Wings of Gold” in Pensacola in 2011. He joined the HMLA-169 “Vipers” in 2012, and was deployed as a light attack helicopter pilot in the volatile Helmand Province of Afghanistan in 2013.

“Ted and our entire family are grateful to the Marine Corps and our county as a whole for allowing Ted the opportunity to represent all of us at this World Cup competition,” Chris Lauzen said. “This event at one time was known as the military pentathlon and patterned after the essential skills of concentration, endurance and strength expected of top cavalry officers.”

Ted Lauzen is happily married to Sarah (Burris) Lauzen and the couple has “an amazing daughter named Caroline,” according to Lauzen’s LinkedIn page.

Events of the Modern Pentathlon

• Aim of the game — Athletes compete in fencing, swimming and horse riding, followed by a combined running and shooting event, with the first to cross the line winning the gold medal. And all of this happens on one day!
• Why should you watch this? — With its mixture of physical and mental demands that test courage, stamina, coordination, concentration, skill and flexibility – plus a generous dose of unpredictability – this event has a strong claim to producing the most complete athlete

SOURCE: www.rio2016.com

Ted Lauzen Bio

• Marmion graduate Ted Lauzen competes for Team USA in modern pentathlon