‘My Road To Tokyo Is Over’, Maltese Athlete Bows Out Of Olympics After Serious Health Revelations
Charlotte Wingfield’s road to the Olympic Games is over after the Maltese athlete revealed that she had unknowingly been suffering from glandular fever for the past 10 months.
“The past 10 months have been really difficult for me with performances on the track not really reflecting how training had been going,” Wingfield said on Instagram.
“At first I thought it was my depression and the side effects of the antidepressants which have been a huge battle for me not only mentally but also physically.”
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Wingfield is one of Malta’s top athletes who competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio in the 100 metres event. She also holds a number of national records, including in the 100 and 200 metres.
However, the athlete revealed how her recent “poor performances” were a result of months battling with health issues, something she only recently found concrete answers for.
“After months of my coach persuading me to go and get some tests, I finally decided to go last week. The results were not good,” she said.
Wingfield found out that her enzyme level had reached over 82, a drastic spike from the usual level found in women which sits between five and 40.
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“What I thought eight months ago was tonsillitis turns out to be my body fighting glandular fever,” she revealed.
“Everything makes sense now, the loss of breath and fatigue after warming up, not being able to eat, tired all the time, insomnia, napping and poor performances as well as trying to recover from previous injuries,” she continued.
Understanding the need for her body to get some much-needed rest, the Maltese athlete announced that competing at the Tokyo Olympics is no longer an option.
“My road to Tokyo 2020 is over, but my road to competing on the international stage isn’t,” she said.
“I will power through to compete at Malta’s National Championships next week before having a break to give my body the recovery it needs,” she ended.
Unfortunately, Maltese athletes haven’t had the best of luck preparing for the Olympics this year.
In addition to having their training schedules disrupted by a government-mandated ban on organised sports, top prospect Jordan Gusman also had to drop out of the Olympic race due to a number of ongoing injuries.
Malta’s current Olympic contingent currently consists of badminton player Matthew Abela and indoor pistol shooter Eleanor Bezzina, with more names expected to be announced later this week.
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