Fighting My Brain: Mountain Bike Athlete Sammie Maxwell’s Fight to Make the Olympics

Four months before the Paris Olympics, Sammy Maxwell was told to stop competing.

The young mountain bike star, who has struggled with an eating disorder since her teenage years, is losing the battle with her brain.

Her weight had dropped significantly, and her bone density levels indicated that she had RED-S (Relative Energy Deficiency in Sports) – a syndrome that covers a range of physical and psychological problems in athletes caused by insufficient energy in their bodies.

Maxwell’s doctors recommended that she stop training and undergo treatment to overcome her eating problems.

So, she did something that was against her nature. She stopped.

The 22-year-old withdrew from his opening round match on the World Cup circuit, saying only: “I need to process some things with my head.”

She gave up brutal interval training and chasing personal bests at the gym for cold showers, slow bike rides in the sun, walks with her mom, baking, French classes, and Wordle. On top of that, she joined an eating disorder clinic and started a treatment program.

But as fall turned to winter and the Olympics drew closer, Maxwell found himself unable to give up his dream of competing in Paris. It was time to get back on the bike.

Maxwell reconnected with her professional team, Decathlon Ford, who put her in touch with a medical support team.

Her management plan also included an agreement with her trainer that if her weight dropped below a certain threshold, intervention would take place, which would likely result in her returning to New Zealand.

Back in her happy place, pounding the pavement on the European circuit, Maxwell excelled as an elite rider, including her first top-10 finish on the World Cup circuit.

Despite this, Cycling New Zealand selectors were not convinced Maxwell was fit enough to compete in the Olympics. The national cycling association refused to allow the under-23 world champion to compete in the trials, arguing that the risk to her health was too great.

What happened next Public performance.

Maxwell appealed her non-nomination to the Sports Tribunal and unwittingly became part of a wider discussion in the sporting world about how sports bodies can balance their duty of care to athletes without taking away their personal autonomy.

The 22-year-old, who was represented by prominent Christchurch lawyer Ian Hunt, won her appeal after the tribunal ruled Cycling New Zealand relied on inaccurate and outdated medical information in making its decision.

The tribunal was also concerned that Cycling New Zealand was discriminating against athletes with eating disorders.

So, less than two weeks before the opening ceremony, Maxwell got the call that she was going to the Olympics.

She was the last athlete selected from the 195-strong New Zealand team heading to Paris.

“Every sports organization can learn from this”

Last week, Maxwell competed in the Olympic mountain bike event, seemingly shaking off all the burdens of the past month.

If she felt any pressure that her performance on the rough gravel roads of Mont Elancourt, 40km from Paris, would confirm or disprove her stance on Cycling New Zealand, she showed it not.

On the sport’s biggest stage, the youngster displayed her usual world tour dynamism, racing to eighth place in her first Olympic Games.

Maxwell told Radio New Zealand in Paris she had no regrets about the case or speaking publicly about her personal health issues.

The professional mountain biker stressed her dispute with Cycling New Zealand selectors never felt confrontational and she felt supported by the organisation throughout.

“I think the worst part about going through this process is that I’m not sure if I’m going to stay here and how long it’s going to take.

“I’m not worried about it (going public). I’ve been very open about my eating disorder issues in the past and I’m glad it’s getting attention because I think every sports organization can learn something from it.”

Maxwell hopes her situation will encourage other young athletes facing similar eating disorder issues to disclose their problems to their sports organizations and work with medical staff to develop a treatment plan.

For now, the Taupo cyclist feels he is winning the mental battle, but “your brain is a muscle like anything else, right? You’ve just got to keep working at it”.

Maxwell, who will conclude her season at the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in Andorra next month, said her mental state is the best she’s ever been while racing overseas.

She credits her recovery to her work at an eating disorder clinic in her hometown.

“I’ve never been overseas and maintained my weight, but I did it this season.

“I’ve responded really well to the training, but I know it’s a long process and I’ll continue the process (at the clinic) as soon as I return home.

“You master these techniques and they’re fresh in your mind and you do really well, but sometimes you forget to use those strategies and techniques and that’s when you relapse, so I just want to be involved in this process as much as I can and take all the tools and knowledge from it. So that’s what I’m going to do when I get home from the world championships in four weeks.”

You always want more

Maxwell’s impressive performance in Paris earned her top-eight Olympic credentials, which has her revisiting her goals for the upcoming world championships.

While it was her best performance to date in the elite event, what the report didn’t cover was that Maxwell had a flat tire midway through the race.

She strained with all her might, hoping the sealant in the bike wheel would work its magic—”I was literally yelling ‘seal, seal, seal’ at the wheel”—but the white gunk told her that air was leaking out.

So, on the fourth of the eight-lap race, she decided to stop in the mechanics area to change tires.

While she was happy with the end result, she couldn’t help but wonder what would have happened if she hadn’t been forced to stop.

“That probably slowed my time by a minute, so without that puncture I would have been in contention for the top five, which is incredible.

“It’s funny, if you had told me before the Olympics that I would be in the top eight, I would have been delighted.

“But that’s part of the mentality of an athlete, right? I’m thinking now, what’s the next step? What can I do? What do I need to do? I’m very, very happy, but it’s always like this – unless it’s a gold medal, you always want more.”

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