Images courtesy of Team England and British Triathlon
While the measure of an athlete’s career is often assessed - somewhat cruelly - by assessing only their medal count, for some simply making the start line required a near herculean effort.
Triathlete Sian Rainsley has enjoyed podium successes, most notably as a junior the 2014 Youth Olympics where she claimed silver as part of a mixed nation team in Nanjing, China.
However, dreams of making the already challenging transition to senior success were further hampered by the onset of Crohn’s disease.
The condition – which is an inflammatory bowel disease, often leaves sufferers with a combination of acute abdominal pain, severe diarrheal, fatigue and weight loss.
For many, the diagnosis would have been career-ending, but not for Rainsley and last month she made her major event debut for England at the Commonwealth Games.
“Four years ago I was in hospital, but I’ve kept on fighting, been able to race at home in front of friends and family,” she told the Women’s Sports Alliance (WSA).
“Even though it’s been tough and finishing 12th was not what I was hoping for, it was special and sometimes you need to just remind yourself how far you’ve come.”
Youthful exuberance and the Youth Olympics
Rainsley describes herself as “quite competitive early on” which began with pushing herself in swimming lessons and running, which resulted her tackling aquathon and triathlon events from the age of seven.
“As soon as I got involved I wanted to win the series,” she says with a smile. “That was when I was eight and I’ve never looked back.”
National and international junior competitions would follow as she ticked off key “stepping stones” in her career path and in 2014 she was selected for the Team GB Youth Olympic Games squad for Nanjing 2014.
“Oh gosh I feel like I was such a youngster back then,” she recalls of the event in China, where she won silver in the mixed international team relay and finished eighth individually.
“It was such an amazing experience and when I had those moments where I didn’t know if I would ever manage to step up and make it as a senior I’d remember how cool Nanjing was - that kept my motivation going.
“That experience just made me think ‘I want to get there again’ I just needed to stay focused and take my time.”
Senior struggles and a painful diagnosis
A year on from the Youth Olympics the then 18-year-old was selected for her first senior British Triathlon training camp, but she would not complete the programme after falling ill.
The Crohn’s Disease diagnosis came as a huge shock and doctors have subsequently told her the “change of environment” – moving from home in the Midlands to the high performance British Triathlon centre at the University of Leeds, probably proved to be a ‘trigger’.
Rainsley has battled the condition ever since.
“It’s an autoimmune disease where basically my body is attacking my own digestive system, so you don’t really keep any food in, it’s painful to eat, digest and you lose blood,” she says.
“You’re in a lot of pain really, so to try and manage that with an endurance sport has been very tricky and probably not really heard of to be honest.
“There were definitely times when I thought I wouldn’t be able to compete as an elite athlete again and some (doctors) suggested I shouldn’t continue because of the stress of training so hard.
“It was so frustrating when all you want to do is be the best you can be and I’d been used to pushing myself to the absolute max in every session since I was seven, but my body wasn’t enjoying it and I had to take the step back.”
How Covid-19 lockdown triggered a remission phase
The national lockdown following the Coronavirus pandemic in early 2020 forced the triathlete to stop training and gave her an unexpected opportunity to reflect and recover.
“In a weird way having Covid and being able to step away from trying to race and just get healthy again really helped me,” she admits.
“With the stress of trying to be in peak condition, manage Uni exams and deadlines all in the past I was able to take a step back and while it was hard, in hindsight it definitely worked.
“I took that step to just focus on other things, get my medication right, gradually build back up when races began to be arranged again and I’ve managed to stay flare-free since then - which is incredible and I’m actually quite lucky really with that!”
Rainsley is acutely aware that a ‘flare-up’ could happen at any point.
However, she has drawn inspiration from Rio 2016 medal winners Ali Jawad and Siobhan-Marie O’Connor who have similar respective Crohn’s and Ulcerative Colitis conditions.
“I remember that as soon as I was diagnosed you try to look at other elite athletes who have the illness to see if it’s even possible (to continue), so I followed both of their stories and it’s been really helpful,” the triathlete states.
“Ali actually messaged me at the time, which was really nice of him and to hear from someone in a similar situation. “Obviously Siobhan has done incredible and an Olympic medal shows it is possible so hopefully I can join them at some point and be at the top of my game.”
Training with idols and rivals
Last year Rainsley was part of the British team who won European mixed relay gold and after making her major senior event debut at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games she is keen to progress further.
The triathlete admits she has the perfect training partners to make that possible, although Britain’s strength-in-depth across women’s triathlon does present sizeable challenges.
“I’ve always looked up at Helen Jenkins (three-time World Champion) and I used to have a posted of her on my wall when I was a kid,” she recalls with a smile.
“Now I train with Non Stanford, Georgia Taylor-Brown, Vicky Holland, Jess Learmonth.
“I did a run session not so long ago and I was like ‘I’m literally running with all world champions here’ and it was pretty cool.”
Reaching Paris 2024, ten years after her Youth Olympic debut, is the “dream” but Rainsley is determined not to become fixated on one target and wants to enjoy the journey.
“Hopefully I’ll stay in remission for as long as possible, but I know it’ll have ups and downs and I’m prepared for that,” states the 25-year-old.
“I train with these (major medal-winning) girls and guys all the time so to finally step up and join them at the (Commonwealth) Games was pretty cool.
“Hopefully I can keep tapping away and get a bit closer each year, but I’m just going to learn and take as much from the opportunity as possible and make the most of it.”