TY - JOUR T1 - Competing at the top level with Crohn’s disease JF - British Journal of Sports Medicine JO - Br J Sports Med SP - 365 LP - 366 DO - 10.1136/bjsports-2019-100807 VL - 54 IS - 6 AU - Alyx Treasure Y1 - 2020/03/01 UR - http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/54/6/365.abstract N2 - By the time I was 17, I had already spent 2 years going in/out of hospital. Having been told at the age of 9 that I would make the Olympics, I was very focused on my sporting goals. I had no prior family history of Crohn’s. It took 2 years for me to get a diagnosis and this severely affected my athletic development by preventing me from training/competing. I lost my opportunity to go to college in the USA, which had been a long-term ambition, and it would have been easy to give up on the sport.Fortunately, I didn’t give up. I achieved my ultimate goal to qualify for the Canadian Olympic team in the high jump. I jumped 1.94 metres in the qualifying round, which put me in the Olympic final and helped me to realise my lifelong dream aged 24 years.When you’re told at 9 years old that you will make the Olympics you become driven, I would remove anything in my path to achieve my target. I was told several times that I had to quit athletics due to my condition, and one doctor advised me to ‘pick health or sport’. I didn’t do well with being told what I could or could not do, and over the years, I have argued with my medical team. However, I needed to be challenged and it is great when you can have open and honest discussions with clinicians. I have valued … ER -