Inspirational Philanthropists in Monaco
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Tracy Mattes, who was raised in the USA, is one of these inspirational residents. After an international career as a high earning athlete, which meant training six to eight hours a day and a second career presenting and producing the evening news at NBC she has been living in Monaco for four years. She came to the area after being invited to the Principality to train for the Modern Pentathlon which ended up turning her life around. Unfortunately a horse riding accident resulted in a fracture in her hand and put her out of action for competition.
Tracy took the unwanted rest initially with difficulty but her determined spirit prevailed and eventually she decided to hone her business skills completing an MBA, where she finished top of her class, earning her the Valedictorian Award, which HSH Prince Albert II and Greek tycoon Stelios Haji-Ioannou, a Monaco resident, presented her with at her graduation ceremony. At the same time she came up with the idea of a business plan for a scientific Olympic Sports Training Centre in the region to help athletes prepare for high level competition. The centre would help coordinate training schedules at the many high level sporting facilities in Monaco, offer services like nutritional advice, health plans and accommodations for athletes in training, something that she had identified as missing throughout her well travelled career which spanned fifty three countries.
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Although athletes like Tracy can earn a million dollars a year on the circuit, she says the life is a hard one and not all celebrity and limousines which is why she wants to get this training centre in place. “There was a lot of hardship in between races, there were times you didn’t know how you were going to get from one to another, but it always turned out to be an adventure. What we are creating here in Monaco, is something us athletes wish we would have had during our careers."