SKYE LOVES CHOCOLATE
Smarties,
Crunchie, Coffee Crisp, Wondebar, Mr. Big, Kit-Kat. Moench loves them all, but five-cent candies hold a special place in her heart.
Born in Lethbridge, Alta., Moench is a dual U.S.Canadian citizen, after spending her first 12 years in Alberta. Her family bounced around a lot, following her mother’s career as a dental hygienist, but the Edmonton area holds the most cherished memories: Visiting the family farm where her grandfather grew up, and taking vacations in Waterton Lakes National Park.
After swim lessons, her mother would stop at the nearby gas station for those five-cent candies. Now living in Utah, Moench still misses the childhood thrill of a pocketful of nickels and pennies, plunked on the counter in exchange for Cherry Blasters or Fuzzy Peaches. “There’s just nothing like Canadian candy and chocolate,” says Moench. “I’d still buy them now if I could.”
Following her parents’ acrimonious divorce when she was 12, Moench and her two sisters moved with their mother to Washington state in the U.S., then on to Utah. Between the relocations in Canada, then in the U.S., it was a lot of moving, a lot of being the new kid in class. “I had to make new friends all the time,” she remembers. “Getting comfortable with feeling uncomfortable was the only option. It developed my toughness.”
“My sisters and I experienced a lot of trauma associated with my parents’ divorce,” she continues. “Life felt so difficult then. But it helped me deal with stuff that happened later: anything after that never felt worse than what I’d already gone through.”
Feeling the odd man out – and not letting it stop her – followed her into the ranks of professional triathlon. “It felt like there was an elite club, and I wasn’t in it. For the first couple of years, I just shut up and worked hard.”