Diabetic Olympic hopeful adapts to trained in quarantine
Isolation is not a new concept for US Olympic hopeful Mandy Marquardt. As a track cyclist she's become inured to the discipline of a sport that demands the toughest of psyches in working with hours of solo training.
So social distancing was not that daunting for the 28-year-old. But trying to keep her Olympic training at at the very top level while being in virtual isolation? That's taken some ingenuity.
As a result of pandemic, Marquardt has been forced to stop access to a cycling velodrome track, world-class gym, and all the perks that include as an Olympic hopeful.
In their place she's created a do-it-yourself, at-home Olympic-style training facility, including a bike simulator to measure all essential performance numbers and a makeshift gym that includes everything she needs on her behalf weight workouts.
"My father is full-on German. He's always said, 'Do it or don't do it!' So it's been in me to discover a way to make things happen, and I must say i love competing, therefore i knew it had been something I wanted to do," she said.
And training under quarantine conditions is hardly the largest challenge Marquardt has ever faced. It's almost a miracle that she's competing at all, especially at the elite level, taking into consideration the up-and-coming cyclist was identified as having Type 1 diabetes at age 16.
