Pitt Meadows water polo player Monika Eggens will soon be competing at the pinnacle of her sport—the Olympic Games.
Monika has been a member of the Canadian national women's water polo team for the past decade. They qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics after winning silver at the Pan American Games in Peru in the summer, 2019.
It will be her first Games, after two narrow misses.
"We missed out of qualifying for the last two Olympics by one goal," she said. "So to qualify was definitely very exciting."
Monika, 28, has been living in Montreal and training with the national team. She first wore the Maple Leaf with in 2007 at the FINA World Junior Championships, and has been a senior national team mainstay since 2009.
She is the third oldest player on the team, right in the middle of a player's water polo prime, and her veteran savvy shows.
"You definitely get better as you get older. The game slows down for you," she said.
Monika and her older sister Carmen were both on the national team in 2009. Now retired from swimming and working as a Vancouver police officer, Carmen was a great player in her own right.
Swimming is in their genes. Their mother Cathy Eggens and aunt Gerri Willms competed as swimmers internationally. Theirs was one of the founding families of the Haney Neptunes swim club. The women played water polo at a time when the sport was not well organized, but they would drive to Simon Fraser University for scrimmages, and were still competing internationally at the masters level in recent years. Their love of the pool was passed on.
"I'm pretty sure I could swim before I could walk," said Monika. Her childhood was spent at the pools in Pitt Meadows and Maple Ridge, either practicing, playing or watching her sister. After entering the sport at the age of six, Monika grew into a dominant player with the Pacific Storm club team, and was the most valuable player at the Canadian under-18 nationals in 2007.
After graduating from Pitt Meadows secondary French immersion program in 2008, she went on to an athletic scholarship in a tropical paradise. In her four seasons at the University of Hawaii, Monika was a scoring machine. She became the school's all-time leading scorer with 252 goals in 115 games. She also set single season records with 101 goals as a senior—it was a high mark for both the UH Rainbows and in the conference.
Monika earned a kinesiology degree, and then went on to play professionally in Europe, with stops in Greece, Italy and Spain. Professional water polo in Europe draws full crowds, has fans who follow the teams and is played in an exciting atmosphere.
Monika is training twice a day with the national team, working hard and focussed on the Olympics.
"Our goal is to medal at the Olympics, and I think we have a good shot at it."
As decorated as she has been as an athlete, Monika appreciates being named a Hometown Hero.
Her locker at PMSS was near the gymnasium, and on the walls were posters of the many Hometown Heroes.
"There were a lot of amazing athletes," she remembers. "Then I remember when my sister got it, and it was pretty cool." "It's a big honour."