Charlotte Drury’s journey with type 1 diabetes: how a shock diagnosis did not stop the American from chasing her Olympic dream
On World Diabetes Day, Olympics.com looks at the inspirational story of the US trampolinist who was diagnosed with diabetes just weeks before the Tokyo 2020 Olympic trials.
Trampoline
“Words can’t describe how hard this year has been,” wrote trampolinist Charlotte Drury in a July 2021 Instagram post that is now pinned at the top of her feed. “But through all the adversity I’m most proud of myself for not giving up. I found out that I’m tougher than I think I am.”
With the Tokyo 2020 Olympics looming, Drury’s world was rocked by a diagnosis of type 1 diabetes that left her Olympic dream in jeopardy.
In truth, she’d known something was wrong for months, as she tried repeatedly to reach the heights that had made her the first American woman to win a World Cup gold and, in the same year, a national champion in her chosen sport.
But despite training as hard as ever, her body wasn’t responding and she felt like she was going backwards instead of forwards.
“I wasn’t building any muscle, I wasn’t getting any better. And I was training more and more because I could feel myself regressing. My skills just got worse and worse,” she later told Diabetes Daily.
“Am I just past my prime? Am I not trying hard enough?
“Looking back, it’s nice to have an explanation that it wasn’t my fault.”
Before then, Drury had blamed other factors on the way she was feeling. The COVID-19 pandemic had caused her to feel depressed and she figured that maybe she was still struggling with the mental health aspects brought on by lockdown and lack of training opportunities.
But a camp prior to the US Olympic trials caused Drury to realise there was more to what she was feeling.
“A month before the first Olympic trial of 2021 I knew something was wrong,” she reminisced in her Instagram post. “I spent the last year, busting my ass, and pushing through the hardest trainings of my life to show up at national team camp in March and watch the other girls out jump me by miles.
“I’d been feeling “off’ for months but wrote it off as depression linked to the struggles of living and training and going to school during a pandemic. On the way home from that camp I finally listened to that nagging voice in my head that was telling me something was wrong. Really wrong.”
A shock diagnosis and a pathway to recovery
Drury plucked up the courage to visit her doctor and was told soon after that she had type 1 diabetes, meaning her body is unable to produce enough insulin - an essential hormone that controls blood glucose levels.
She had been suffering for months with many of the symptoms of the disease, including lethargy, a feeling of being thirsty all the time and the need to urinate much more regularly than usual, however the diagnosis itself was a devastating shock for the young athlete.
“I didn’t go into practice for a week. I didn’t even consider continuing with gym,” she continued in her Instagram post.
“This felt insurmountable and terrifying and there was just no way I could figure out how to manage a life-changing diagnosis and get into Olympic shape in time for the first trial in 3 weeks.”
However, while discovering she had diabetes at first left Drury feeling as if she was at rock bottom, it was also the first stage in her ascent.
“After two weeks of getting my blood sugars back in range, I literally felt like a different person,” she said. “A completely different person.”
Charlotte Drury’s journey to Tokyo
Even though she felt better in herself, the idea of making it to an Olympic Games so soon after such a life-changing diagnosis seemed completely beyond the realms of reason at first.
But with the support of coach Logan Dooley, she decided that now wasn’t the time to give up on her Olympic dream - not if she had any chance of making it come true
“With his, and so many others, help, I started to figure out how to manage it and decided to give everything I had to the sport in the little bit of time I had left,” Drury explained.
Friends were also there to help, including partner and artistic gymnast Laurie Hernandez who shared her experiences of members of her own family who have type 2 diabetes.
After returning to training, her performances gradually began to improve and she was rewarded with a place on the US Olympic team as an alternate.
And while heading to Tokyo was a dream come true, it was far less significant than what she had proven to herself: that her diagnosis did not have to define her and she was stronger than she had ever thought she could be.
“I know that I gave 100% of what I had every single day and that I'm super, super proud of the outcome,” she said. “Doesn't matter. Olympic team, no Olympic team, Olympic alternate, Olympian – like I gave 100% and I've been through the wringer."
An athlete who continues to inspire inside and outside of sport
Life hasn’t been a constant bed of roses for Drury since her diagnosis.
The complexities of managing diabetes have sometimes left her struggling to cope, including the first time her blood sugar dipped while training: “I immediately started crying and hyperventilating. ‘Something’s wrong, get me off the equipment!’” she remembered.
However, little by little, Drury has not only learnt better ways of dealing with the daily challenges of the disease, but also become a spokesperson for people with diabetes, an example of how such a diagnosis does not have to stop you from chasing even your greatest dreams.
“I’ve had a year to come to terms with this diagnosis, this new identity,” she reflected in a social media post a year after finding out what was causing her symptoms. “And It’s gotten so much easier. The fear and anxiety I felt constantly in those first months has eased tremendously. I was genuinely afraid minute to minute. I didn’t trust my body. I didn’t trust myself. I just wasn’t there yet.
“But I am now. I trust in the absurd amount of knowledge I’ve amassed. I trust in the signals my body sends me. I trust that I can adapt to the new things that will inevitably come my way. I trust in the support of people who understand.”