Diabetes News Hound had the opportunity to sit down with USA Olympic cross country skier Kris Freeman to talk about his battle to become the best in his sport despite having Type 1 diabetes.
DNH: You were diagnosed with Type 1 at age 19, so you were a little too old to attend the summer camps for kids with diabetes. (Kris is visiting 14 summer camps from June 9 – Aug. 18 on a tour sponsored by Eli Lilly) So tell me how you got involved with the camps?
Freeman: One of the very first things I was told was what I couldn’t do, which was that I couldn’t continue on my Olympic path. That was really hard for me. I wish that I had never gotten that message. My passion for doing these camps is to go out and spread a positive message that kids can go after any aspirations they might have.
DNH: I think a lot of kids with diabetes are told that they are not suited for endurance sports. Do you feel like you are breaking that mold?
Freeman: For sure. At the time I was diagnosed no one had ever competed at the Olympic levels in an endurance event. So, it was kind of assumed that it couldn’t be done. I have done it now so obviously it is possible and I look forward to seeing other diabetics break down similar doors.
DNH: When you were first diagnosed, was there a celebrity or athlete or person in your family with Type 1 that you drew inspiration from?
Freeman: Right after being diagnosed, I was absolutely crushed and quite scared of the situation. The way I like to deal with anything I’m scared of is to learn as much as I can about it. The very first thing that gave me encouragement was that I learned how much how much better technology and treatments for diabetes had become in the last several decades. It’s light years ahead of where it used to be. That was the very first thing that made me think that what I want to do is possible.
Then reading about Gary Hall Jr. was definitely an inspiration to me. He’s an Olympic Gold Medalist in the spring event. I thought if he could do it in sprint, I could find a way to do it.
DNH: I know a lot went into developing your training and in-race blood sugar management. As you note, this had never been done before. So, where did you start?
Freeman: The first thing I had to do was find a doctor that believed in me. I found one who was actually the USC Team physician – his name is Larry Gaul. He was the first doctor that I worked with closely on it. He was pretty cautious, but he was never afraid to try something new, which I think is really important. We did a lot of time trials and a lot of practice. It was a lot of trial and error, trying to figure out what insulin doses work for different distances, what dosage worked for training and of course monitoring my hemoglobin A1C and making sure I was staying within healthy levels. With his guidance I had an average A1C of 5.6.
I returned to racing relatively quickly after being diagnosed. Everything wasn’t perfect, but on the full, it was positive.
DNH: If you weren’t skiing, what would you be doing right now?
Freeman: I’d probably be going to school. To pursue the Olympic Dream I stopped going to the University of Vermont my freshman year. I’ve been a profession ski racer for the past 10 years. I definitely intend to go back and get a BA and maybe a Master’s degree in Psychology.
DNH: What is the most difficult experience you’ve had during your training?
Freeman: It’s a constant balancing act – going from country to country. A lot of my teammates can easily adapt without having to think about their insulin dosage or whatever weird food we might be served. For me, sometimes it’s just accumulated stress.
DNH: The last Olympics didn’t turn out quite as you had hoped. You lost a few minutes off your time during your second race and pulled out of your final race, which was the longest. I know you are a competitive guy. Which was more disappointing to you?
Freeman: Those were both tough moments. The race that I dropped out of – that was a planned occurrence. Basically when I had the hypoglycemic episode in the 30k, I got back up and I kept going. That was an incredibly stressful thing to do to my body. I hadn’t fully recovered by the time we came around to the 50k. My coaches told me that if it looks like I was suffering, that I was not staying with the leaders, that they wanted to pull me out to salvage the rest of my season so I could keep on racing in Europe after the Olympics. They just didn’t see the point of suffering through that race. So when I dropped out, I got a signal from my coach, which made it not my decision a little bit. It made it a little easier.
The 30k was definitely the harder of the two because I was feeling great until I had the hypoglycemic episode. So, for sure, the 30k was harder to take. At the same time it was nice to know that even when the absolute worst happens I was still able to get up and finish.
DNH: Cross country skiing not only tests you endurance within each race, but also within a season because you have many competitions over the course of several months.
Freeman: Yes, I pretty much drained all glycogen stores when I had that low blood sugar. It takes weeks to rebuild that. I only had several days before the next race. So, we knew that having a great race only four days after having a terrible low was not likely.
DNH: So what’s next for Kris Freeman after the tour of the camps?
Freeman: On July 18 I’m flying down to New Zealand. I’ll be there for three weeks training hard on snow. When I get back really focused training starts and its about 3-4 months before I go off to the World Cup in November.
DNH: I’ve got diabetes and I know that sometimes things impact your blood sugar levels in ways you do not expect. Does the high altitude when skiing impact your sugar levels?
Freeman: Absolutely, I’m not totally sure of the sciences behind it, but for whatever reason, going to a high altitude makes me less insulin sensitive. So, I have to increase my basal rate. My body tends to adapt to it after 3 or 4 days and then my basal rates go back down to normal. But, whatever stress is happening to your body due to the pressure changes, in my body at least, makes me less insulin sensitive. It’s something I have to be very aware of when I’m travelling.
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