“Everybody sees me laugh with my gold medal, but no one sees the dark side”, says para-athlete Marieke Vervoort.
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‘I want everyone to have a glass of champagne in hand, and a thought for me.
This is what Vervoort, a victor of gold medal in 100m and silver in 200m T52 wheelchair sprint in London 2012, has to say about the decision to leading dailies: “After Rio, I will stop my sports career, I want to see what life brings me and I will try to enjoy the finest moments”.
It’s no surprise that she is hoping to repeat that success when the Rio event starts on Wednesday.
Marieke Vervoort of Belgium.
In French newspaper Le Parisien she has detailed the daily struggles she goes through and that to take her own life would finally give her peace. I suffer greatly, sometimes sleeping only 10 minutes a night-and still go for the gold.
She added, “I did not know if I would be in Rio”.
“There is a chance to medal, but it will be very hard because the competition is very strong”. After, we shall see what life brings for me…
The constant sleepless nights and the agony of her condition mean Vervoort faints regularly, and it has pushed her to the brink.
Euthanasia has been legal in Marieke’s home country of Belgium since 2002.
She told The Sun: “I started thinking about euthanasia”.
Vervoort with her London gold.
Vervoot’s health started deteriorating in 2000 due to the rare disease which paralysed her. Before she knew it, she was already competing in the 2007 Hawaii Ironman. By 2008 her back condition left her unable to take part in triathlons and she moved on to wheelchair sprinting.
Training for wheelchair sprinting is her life, she shared on her website, according to The Advertiser.
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Per Wright, the Belgian revealed how she had overcome the disease to win her gold medals: “When I sit in my racing chair, everything disappears”. I literally knocked all my fears and frustrations out of me’.
