Kirsten Sweetland confirms late-stage Lyme disease has been the source of her struggles over the last few years
Canada’s Kirsten Sweetland placed 41st in the Rio triathlon this morning and though it’s not the finish she was hoping for, the 27-year-old is proud to have even made it to the Olympics after two years of extreme health issues have set her back time and time again.
“I didn’t know if I was even going to make the team earlier this year,” she said after the race. “I’m obviously disappointed. I would have liked a better result, but I’m just happy I put it all out there and did my best,” said Sweetland. “Our sport is not easy. I was just praying I’d make it through the bike course today. That was the biggest hurdle for me. I did get dropped from the front pack on the first hill and then caught up. I gave everything I had to stay in contact. When I got to the run, I just became focused on finishing and I gave it everything I had to the end.”
After this morning’s race, Sweetland confirmed over social media that the most recent of her struggles have come down to late-stage Lyme disease, which she was diagnosed with after WTS Yokohama in May.
“I’ve kept quiet because I didn’t want it to define my Games experience in anyone else’s eyes, or my own” Sweetland explains in her post. “We now know that I have late-stage Lyme disease. I’m so proud to have made it this far under such circumstances and couldn’t have done it without the amazing doctors I was able to work with… I’m not accepting this as a sentence, just another setback.”