When the International Olympic Committee announced last August that karate would be added to the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, College of Business senior Aude Monde could not have been more thrilled. She has her sights set on being there to compete, and she thinks her chances are pretty good.

The professional sales major and holder of a first-degree black belt already has made her mark on the sport. Selected as a member of the U.S. Martial Arts Team while in high school, she has represented the United States twice in the World Martial Arts Games, bringing home two gold medals and one silver from the 2014 games in Canada and two golds, two silvers and one bronze from the 2016 event in South Africa. Now, she’s psyching herself up to begin the training to qualify for a performance on the world’s biggest sports stage.   

So she can focus on her Olympic goal and stay on track to graduate in 2019, Monde will stick close to home in Sarasota, Florida, for the next school year and complete her remaining 28 credit hours online. The long and arduous process of qualifying for the USA Olympic Team includes increasingly more difficult national and international competitions and going toe-to-toe with the world’s top karate practitioners.

Monde said she’s been hooked on karate since being introduced to the sport at age 11 in an afterschool program. She chose a major in professional sales for a lot of the same reasons she sticks with the sport.

“I love the thrill of competing and putting myself outside my comfort zone, which is where both karate and professional sales place you,” said Monde, a member of the FSU Junior Varsity Professional Sales Team. “Both teach you self-discipline and principles like respect, patience, supporting your teammates and seizing opportunities. These are principles reiterated in class that I try to live by.” 

Monde has taken every opportunity to learn and achieve in professional sales, including participating in FSU’s Seminole Sales Showcase Speed Selling Competition and the University of Toledo Invitational Sales Competition. She has proven herself to be a hard worker and a team player, said Pat Pallentino, senior lecturer and director of the FSU Sales Institute, which is housed in the College of Business.

Pallentino said he is impressed by Monde’s determination and skills in both sales and karate, and is confident she will stay on task with her studies as well as her training.  

“It was evident to me when I met Aude that she is focused and has the determination and the ability to excel in professional sales as a career,” Pallentino said. “I think this is in large part due to her training as an athlete. We’re all proud of what she’s accomplishing in both arenas, and we’re keeping our fingers crossed that she makes the Olympic Team.”

- Barbara Ash