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 …

中文翻译：

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与克罗恩病在顶级竞争

到我 17 岁时，我已经花了两年时间进出医院。在 9 岁的时候被告知我会参加奥运会，我非常专注于我的运动目标。我之前没有克罗恩病的家族史。我花了 2 年的时间才得到诊断，这严重影响了我的运动发展，因为我无法参加训练/比赛。我失去了在美国上大学的机会，这是一个长期的抱负，很容易放弃这项运动。幸运的是，我没有放弃。我实现了我的最终目标，在跳高比赛中获得了加拿大奥运代表队的参赛资格。我在资格赛中跳了 1.94 米，这让我进入了奥运会决赛，并帮助我实现了我 24 岁的毕生梦想。当你在 9 岁时被告知你将参加奥运会，你就会变得有动力，我会删除路径中的任何内容以实现我的目标。有人多次告诉我，由于我的病情，我不得不退出体育运动，一位医生建议我“选择健康或运动”。被告知我能做什么或不能做什么，我做得不好，多年来，我与我的医疗团队争吵过。但是，我需要接受挑战，当您可以与临床医生进行公开和诚实的讨论时，这真是太好了。我珍视……