Isaksen was born in
Fayetteville, Arkansas. She lived in Fayetteville for most of her early life, and grew up riding horses. She has one sibling,
Isabella Isaksen, who is also at the
Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, competing internationally in modern pentathlon. Isaksen's father was the captain of a cruise ship. He died of
colon cancer when his daughters were 2 and 6 months old, respectively. Isaksen was raised by her mother, Kathleen West, until she moved in at the Olympic Training center in
Colorado Springs, Colorado, sometime during her early teenage years. On June 1, 2008, at the age of 16, Isaksen qualified for the 2008 Summer Olympics when she received an official Olympic invitation from the
Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne due to her ranking on the pentathlon world ranking list for the Olympic qualifying period. ==References==