McCartney’s mystery illness
For Eliza McCartney the darkest days of a four-year spiral of injuries and setbacks were so bleak that at times she had to run away and hide, it threatened to overwhelm her so much.
But here’s the good news: the golden girl of New Zealand track and field is hopeful she has found, not only an answer to the problems that have plagued her since her memorable Olympic Games bronze medal in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, but also a solution to go with it.
And here’s the even better news: she is confident that, having hopefully found the right medication to treat what her team believes is a genetic disorder, there is now nothing stopping her from going for gold at the Tokyo Olympics next year.
McCartney, 22, has suffered an array of mostly Achilles tendon and hamstring injuries since 2016 when she had to battle her way to that memorable bronze medal in Rio through gritted teeth. Two weeks before the Games she injured her Achilles in Germany and had to clear the pain barrier, as well as some special heights, to do what she did at her first Olympics.
Since then she has been pretty much competing with the handbrake on. In 2017 she suffered Achilles tendonitis that ruined the back end of her year, much like it did this one. In 2018, she was dogged by hamstring issues that kept her from really striding out when it mattered. And this year she has battled, first, hamstring and, then, Achilles problems that eventually forced her to abandon her tilt at the world championships in Doha.
The situation reached a nadir around a month after her return from her ill-fated European campaign when she was working through a routine Saturday morning vaulting session and felt a sudden pain in her Achilles. It was another brutal blow.
‘‘That was so frustrating because that was the injury I had just gotten rid of, and it got worse and worse and behaved really strangely,’’ she told Stuff yesterday.
‘‘It was clearly atypical tendonitis, as things that normally make it happy were doing the opposite and my poor medical team spent a lot of time trying to work out what was going on.’’
At last, they think they might have found an answer. McCartney says they can’t be absolutely certain, but there is a good indication they have ticked the two most important boxes in this four-year battle with her body.
‘‘We think I have an autoimmune condition that particularly affects tendons. The micro-trauma you get over time eventually drives my immune system into overdrive and seems to start off an inflammatory process in the area affected.
‘‘I have started medication and have already noticed improvement, even though I’m meant to give it a whole month to see how it goes. I feel really positive this is what’s going on and, if it is, I can go back to being a normal athlete and not have all these strange things happening.
‘‘It’s just a massive relief to have an answer that also has a solution.’’
‘‘The hardest part was not knowing. You start questioning yourself – if your body is capable of doing what you want it to do? When you get an answer it changes everything. People around me have noticed how much happier I’ve been in the last week because we’ve found what we think is answer and, not only that, it comes with a solution.
‘‘It could explain the injuries I’ve had the last three years which also makes me feel a lot better because I might not have so much difficulty in the future.’’
It’s important not to rush things. She doesn’t want another setback in her buildup to Tokyo which means she is unlikely to see much action over the Kiwi summer and is a highly doubtful starter for the world indoors in Nanjing from March 13-15.
Right now it’s small steps for a young woman who hopes to be soaring when it really matters in 2020.