Help Send Matawan Olympian Monica Aksamit To Tokyo In 2020

MATAWAN, NJ — It can be difficult, if not nearly impossible, to make ends meet when you're training as an Olympic athlete. Just ask Rowdy Gaines, a three-time gold-medalist swimmer who recalls training for the 1984 Olympics while working the night shift as a motel clerk, and living off boxed macaroni and cheese.

Or Jason Pryor, 28, the top-ranked fencer in the U.S., who lives with several roommates in Queens and works at Dick’s Sporting Goods.

Or you could ask Monica Aksamit, the Matawan native and Olympic fencing star who says she had no choice but to launch a GoFundMe page earlier this month to help send her to the 2020 summer Olympics in Tokyo.

"You don't want to go on the Internet and ask strangers for help," Aksamit, 29, told Patch. "But I had $150 in my checking account last week. I'm at the point where I don't have a choice."

Aksamit grew up in Matawan. Should she qualify for Tokyo (fingers crossed), this will not be her first Olympic run: Aksamit won bronze with the 2016 U.S. women's fencing team in Rio de Janeiro, alongside fellow New Jersey residents Dagmara Wozniak of Avenel and Ibtihaj Muhammad of Maplewood. (Three of the 14 members of the 2016 Olympic fencing team hailed from New Jersey.)

Aksamit is a local hero, and her Olympic win got her hired for coaching jobs at St. John Vianney Catholic high school in Holmdel, and Brookdale Community College.

But she doesn't always feel like much of a celebrity.

"My family is from Poland originally and that country has a gold-medal winning ski jumper (Kamil Stoch). You cannot go into any store in Poland without seeing his face on every billboard," she said. "Meanwhile, I think I've been recognized once in the supermarket. In America, there are 121 of us Olympic medal winners. We don't stand out."

A local Matawan girl: Monica Aksamit's story

Born to Polish parents, Aksamit attended Matawan public elementary, middle and high schools.

"That's right, I'm a Husky," she says, referring to the mascot of Matawan Regional High School.

She currently lives with her mom in Morganville, but is moving to Jersey City next month, in part so she can cut down on her $425-a-month NJ Transit commuting fees, and continue training at her gym in New York, the renowned Manhattan Fencing Center.

Unfortunately, money troubles are nothing new to Aksamit and her family.

"Like I said, my parents are immigrants and they divorced when I was 8 or 9," she told Patch. "My dad has basically been out of the picture since then; he paid some child support over the years, but it was always the least amount. My mom raised me on my own and she actually put herself in a lot of credit card debt in order for us to stay in our house in Matawan."

Aksamit was first introduced to fencing at age 9 and took classes at the Polish American Fencing School in Linden.

"A couple times my mom would have to talk to my coaches and she'd say she was sorry, but she'd have to pull me out. She just couldn't afford it," she recalled. "My coaches would always say, 'Absolutely not, I see so much talent in your kid. She has to continue in this sport."

"In many cases they would just let me train for free, and tell my mom to pay her when she could," she said.

When Aksamit was about 15, she started taking the train into New York and training at the "Friday nights free fence" at Manhattan Fencing Center, owned by world-renowned fencing coach Yury Gelman. Aksamit would just show up alone and work on her steps.

Gelman took notice of the tall, blond girl from New Jersey.

"He approached me and said, 'I see a great talent in you. I'd love to be your coach; what's your mom's number so I can call her,'" she recalled. "The first thing I said to him right away was that she couldn't afford it. But Yury didn't give up on me."

Like so many of her coaches before, he told her he knew talent when he saw it.

That was her big break. Aksamit started training with Gelman multiple times a week, commuting as a teenager from the Bayshore into Manhattan. She started qualifying for junior national teams, winning silver in the 2008 Jr. World fencing championships, and then gold in 2009. She received a full scholarship to Penn State University for fencing, where she majored in kinesiology. She helped the Nittany Lions win not one, but two NCAA fencing championships. She also won gold with Team USA at the 2016 Pan American Championships, an important qualifier for the Olympics.

Her quest for Olympic gold

When college was over, Aksamit returned home to Matawan.

"My mom and I were talking and she said, 'I know you've always wanted to go to the Olympics. Now is your chance. It's now or never. It's either that, or find a job like the rest of us.'"

That was all Aksamit needed to hear. She kicked her training into high gear, with one goal in mind: To qualify for the 2016 summer Olympics in Rio.

Qualifying for those games was a lifetime achievement. All of Monmouth County was filled with pride to see a local Matawan woman competing on the world stage. But what many don't know is that Aksamit had to "crowd-fund" even back then, raising money through GoFundMe and Pursu.it, a crowd-sourcing site for athletes. In fact, she's still paying off debt from that Olympic run.

And even coming back with the third-place bronze medal did not translate into lucrative ad deals.

"I really thought winning bronze would help me with sponsorships and stuff," she said to Patch. "Unfortunately, it didn't. Nobody cares. I met with an agent (after the 2016 Olympics) and he didn't hold back. He said to me directly: 'There are 121 Olympic medalists in this country. Why should anyone care about you?'"

"And who watches fencing?," she continues with a rueful laugh. "I don't know, maybe five people? It's not even broadcast on TV. I'm not like Michael Phelps."

And then there's this: It makes her angry to walk past a Reebok or a Nike ad featuring photos of rapper Cardi B or model Bella Hadid.

"Why aren't we using actual female athletes for fitness modeling? Why are we using models?" she wants to know. "It's different with men; they use a lot more professional athletes. But walk into any Adidas store and none of their women models are real athletes."

Aksamit did some part-time modeling and a small Instagram ad campaign for a watch company. She also taught a one-time fencing camp at Brookdale Community College (the camp is now over) and was a fencing instructor at St. John Vianney. Unfortunately, the program never took off the ground and is now closed.

"Also, all that only pays so much when you are traveling to competitions and to Europe," she said.

For example, to qualify for Tokyo, Aksamit will have to compete in four competitions this year within the U.S., in Kansas City, Salt Lake City and Charlotte. Each one comes with a $150 entry fee, plus flights there and motel lodging.

That's nothing compared to the six tournaments in Europe in which she must also compete, which cost 80-100 euro to enter, plus flights and lodging. Fortunately, Aksamit does not have to pay for her training at the Manhattan Fencing Center.

Once she's done her Olympic quest, Aksamit would like to become a physicians's assistant. But right now, holding down a 9-5 job is impossible. She begins training every day at 2 p.m.

The USA is the only country that does not pay its athletes to train or compete in the Olympics. In Europe, Aksamit's Olympic rivals have their training fully funded by the European Union government. Athletes live in team housing and have their meals and daily expenses paid for; they need to only focus on their sport. Olympic medal winners in Russia are bestowed luxury cars as gifts from the Kremlin. Aksamit knows several female fencers who have since moved to Uzbekistan, where they are paid thousands of dollars each month in stipends by the Uzbek government.

In the U.S., our Olympians have to do it all on their own. And they often go into debt along the way.

That's why Aksamit created this GoFundMe campaign. So far, she's raised about $5,000 of her $21,000 goal.

The expense. The debt. Aksamit already has her bronze medal. Is it all worth it to go for gold?

"I'm the fifth-ranked best fencer in the U.S. right now," said Aksamit. "I wouldn't be trying to do this if I didn't think I could win."

Donate to Monica's campaign here: Monica Aksamit - Road to Tokyo!

Past Patch reporting on this local hero: Matawan's Monica Aksamit Wins Bronze in Olympic Fencing

Matawan's Monica Aksamit Talks About Returning Home from the Olympics, With a Medal