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5 Minutes With Elite Athlete Charlotte Drury

6 Minute Read
Charlotte Drury

Want to get to know some of the people making a difference in the diabetes world? In our “5 Minutes With” series, we talk to experts and advocates who share inspiring stories and their take on the latest in diabetes care.

Charlotte Drury is a former U.S. trampoline gymnast who was the first American to win a gold medal for women’s trampoline at a World Cup.

Drury spent almost a decade competing on the U.S. Trampoline and Tumbling Team, becoming both a national and World Cup champion before pursuing her dream of making it to the 2020 Toyko Olympics. Unfortunately, COVID-19 hit, pushing back the competition a year.

During a training camp leading up to the Olympic trials, Drury hit a major roadblock: a type 1 diabetes diagnosis. Despite the unexpected and life-changing news, Drury didn’t give up and landed a spot as an alternate for the 2020 Olympics, becoming the first person with type 1 diabetes to make it on the Olympic gymnastics team.

Anna Brooks: How did you first get into trampoline gymnastics?

Charlotte Drury: I started in artistic gymnastics when I was 3. My mom put me in gymnastics because I kept getting stuck in my neighbor's tree and she wanted me to go somewhere to channel my energy. I did that for 10 years and wanted to go to the Olympics in that sport, but ended up getting really burnt out and quit when I was 13. Again, my mom said, ‘You have too much energy, you have to do something – I’m signing you up for a trampoline class.’ I was like, ‘Oh cool, when?’ and she said ‘Tonight!’ That’s how I got started.

Brooks: Can you share the story of your diabetes diagnosis with us? 

Drury: After the Olympics was postponed, I continued to train for them until I really noticed my health decline. But it was very gradual – it wasn’t like one day I woke up with a cold. With the stress of the pandemic, being in isolation, and the Olympics being postponed, everything was up in the air and I just assumed it was life getting more difficult. I kept pushing off all my symptoms thinking, ‘Well of course training is hard. Life is hard. You’re getting older, and it’s hard to maintain being an elite athlete.’ 

And then I showed up to national team camp in early 2021 and was just horrible. I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t do my routines, I couldn't bounce high, I couldn’t get through a practice – all of these things. On the way home I was like, ‘Okay, there’s definitely something wrong. There’s no way that’s normal.’ And something was wrong. I went to the doctor and she immediately called me after and said, ‘You have diabetes.’ 

The only thing I knew about diabetes was one person on the national team who was a tumbler who had type 1, but apart from seeing his diabetes tech and one time seeing him inject insulin, I knew absolutely nothing about it. I knew my partner’s dad had type 2 diabetes, but I had a really skewed, uneducated view of what diabetes was. I went in totally blind. 

It was really intense and scary, but also a relief because now I had an answer for why training was so difficult and why I was feeling so bad. All of these silent symptoms started to make sense, and it felt really good to know it wasn’t just me or I wasn't working hard enough. 

Brooks: What did life look like as an elite athlete training for the Olympics after your diagnosis?

Drury: I had about three weeks until my first competition after I was diagnosed. Unfortunately, didn’t have the best care team when I was first diagnosed. Finding that care team is the most important thing. Yes, doctors went to medical school and endocrinologists are very smart people, but you are the one living with diabetes and if your gut is telling you something isn’t right, then I promise you something is not right.

So there were a lot of Google searches and reaching out to anybody who might have any knowledge. I got connected with a couple of really good people and they were truly crucial in figuring out what I was supposed to do: How I was going to train with this, how much insulin to take and when to take it, what should I be eating, and then also getting to discuss the mental side of things, which is huge with a diabetes diagnosis. 

Brooks: How has life with diabetes changed since you tired from being a professional athlete?

Drury: I’ve really dedicated a lot of time post-Olympics to figure out what works for me. I’ve taken the space to learn about my body and what it needs without the pressure of the biggest sporting event in the entire world.

I approach my insulin regimen so differently than I did while I was actually training because now I know so much more. I look back at some of the things while I was competing in the Olympic trials and going to Tokyo like having severe low blood sugar or not being able to control my highs. Now I know exactly why that happened – I just wish I knew that then. Now I know that it’s okay to be a little bit high when we start exercising. You can eat a snack and not dose for it and just ride that high. That’s going to be totally fine; it will come back down. 

I do MDI (multiple daily injections), so I’m not on a pump, but I do wear a Dexcom CGM. After I was diagnosed I had to kind of turn off all my alarms for a good chunk of time because I was hyper-obsessing over it and really judging myself for my numbers. Very happily now three years out of the diagnosis I don't obsess over it anymore. I feel more independent and confident in moving through the world with diabetes, which was a big blow when I was first diagnosed, but now it’s just one of those things I have. 

Brooks: For anyone who lives with diabetes and dreams of becoming a professional athlete, what advice do you have for staying positive in the face of adversity?

Drury: I tried for so long to be positive and look on the bright side. But especially with my diabetes, I’ve really shifted into just having a neutral mindset. It's not good; it’s not bad; it just is. It’s going to be one of those things where you just have to roll with the punches. It’s not going to go to plan all the time, a lot of times it’s going to be horrible – it just is. I think separating the good and bad from it has helped me a lot.

Diabetes will make things more difficult, but you don’t have to let it limit you or limit your goals. You can still set those goals and work towards them, you might just have to take a couple more extra steps or carry a backpack full of juice boxes. Diabetes is just a fact of your life, and you keep going with it. I consider myself so lucky to live in a time period and in a country that has access to all of the medical needs that I have. It gets a little bit easier every day.

Learn more about exercise and being an athlete with diabetes here:

Photo credit: Kevin Jairaj - USA TODAY Sports