Kris Freeman Overcomes Diabetes: Aims for Gold in Vancouver

By Lou Dzierzak

Thousands of elite athletes from around the world are making their final preparations for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia. Every snowboarder, short track speed skater, ski jumper and hockey player shares a dream of standing on the podium wearing an Olympic gold medal.

Kris Freeman, a member of the United States cross country ski team, has a story unmatched in Olympic competition history. Freeman, 28, is the first athlete with Type 1 diabetes to compete in an Olympic endurance event.

Diagnosed in 2000, doctors initially told Freeman he would have to give up his dream to win an Olympic medal in cross country skiing. Freeman recalls, “I was very concerned that I was going to have to stop racing. Not trying to race never occurred to me. I was going to try and if I failed, I failed, but I was certainly going to go as hard as I could to continue on the career path I was on.”

At the time, Freeman had just given up a full scholarship at the University of Vermont to move to Park City, Utah, to train full-time for the 2002 Olympics. He continues, “I put all the eggs into one basket. Being the first American to medal since Bill Koch in 1976 had been my dream since my early teen years. So getting that diagnosis was crushing. But I could see where the doctors were coming from since no one had ever competed at the Olympic level with Type 1 diabetes before. It had never been done and now I’m doing it.”

Freeman is the reigning U.S. national cross country champion and had his best finish at the Worlds in 2009 and the best American finish in cross country in more than two decades. Advancements in diabetes treatment have helped Freeman achieve these world-class results.

“Without a doubt this is the best time in history to have diabetes,” Freeman explains. “The medical advances have been tremendous. I don’t know if what I’m doing now would have been possible 20 years ago.”

Training for Olympic-caliber events ranging from 15-km and 30-km classic races to 10-km team relays requires pushing yourself to physical and mental limits. Freeman describes his efforts to maintain the proper balance between his diabetes, training and being race-ready.

“I have been focusing this year on being rested and never being too far away from being race-ready,” he says. “The previous three years have been really, really intense, hard training and I’m resting this year and trying to cash in a few chips. This is the Olympic year; why would I make myself tired?”

He continues, “It’s been less training than I have done in the past; more focused training and maximizing all the time I spend on my feet and eliminating any hours that I absolutely don’t know the purpose of. I’m really on top of everything else making sure I am only a day or two from being fully race-ready. In the past I would train myself to death and sometimes need a week or two to recover. That’s okay in a year when you are not trying to reach your absolute peak but that wouldn’t work in an Olympic year.”

In recent World Cup events, Freeman has finished fourth twice and fifth twice. He feels confident about breaking through to the podium in Vancouver.

Freeman describes his state of mind with the Olympics just weeks away.

“Whatever what you do, the Olympics can be overwhelming,” he says. “The media attention, the crowds, the fans and knowing everyone is behind you and watching. By the same token, it’s the same guys I race every weekend. It’s the same level of competition that I race at World Cup. I feel keeping a level head and going through the motions the way you would on a normal World Cup weekend is the best way to get through it.”

At the 2010 Winter Olympics, Freeman plans to compete in four events. With the rest of the U.S. Ski Team, he has spent many hours familiarizing himself with the competition venue.

“The team and I have spent a lot of time in Whistler Olympic Park getting used to the environment. Before the Olympic venue was even built, we looked at where the site was going to be. We were roller skiing on the Olympic course as soon as they laid pavement on it. I have run on the Olympic course and raced on the Olympic course. We’ve done everything we can do to make it feel as much like home as we can. I know that course backwards and forward.”

Listening to Freeman, it’s clear he’s comfortable with his own expectation to bring home a medal in a Nordic skiing event. He says, “My goal, since I committed to skiing in my early teens, was to be that next guy to get a medal. It’s too bad that we haven’t gotten one yet, but I will be happy to be first guy to get a medal since Bill Koch. What he did in 1976 is phenomenal.”

He’s confident there may be more than one medal hanging around the necks of his teammates. Freeman comments, “ I’ve been on the U.S. Ski Team for 10 years. This is by far the most professional group I’ve ever been with. We have the best support. I’m not the only one with a chance to medal at these games. It’s great to be going into the Games with a good team and not the only one with a chance and ride the momentum of a strong United States team.”

Unlike any other athlete at the Olympics, Freeman must carefully monitor his blood sugar levels so his diabetes doesn’t affect his performance. Constantly testing is an integral part of his life. Traveling to competitive venues around the world adds a level of complexity to Freeman’s diabetes testing routine.

“Testing is much different when I’m constantly changing the country I’m in, the kinds of food I’m eating or even the altitude that I’m at,” he explains. “The different pressures that you are at can put different pressures on the body which makes you absorb and utilize insulin differently.”

Keeping a detailed log about how much insulin he has used in previous World Cup competitions gives Freeman a starting point for crafting an insulin regime to follow before each race.

“A normal blood sugar level ranges from a glucose of 70-120 in a non-diabetic athlete,” he says. “From my own testing, I have found that I have no ill effects from my blood sugar from about 70-200, so I try to keep it in that range. If my blood sugar gets much over 200, my lactate levels actually start to increase with the higher blood sugar. The range I have to keep it in is 70-200. That is not that big of window in reality.”

He continues, “The most important thing is that if I get much over 200 my lactate starts to climb. Lactate is what makes your muscles ache and burn. On the flip side I can’t let it go below 70 because then you feel like you have a ‘bonk’ coming on. You have a bonk created by too much insulin and not enough sugar in your system. With a severe enough bonk, you can actually lose consciousness. It is very important for me to keep my blood sugar within that window.”

In order to monitor his blood sugar levels during competition, Freeman has been using an Omnipod insulin pump. Previous pump options featured a thin plastic tube between the pump and a needle used to deliver the insulin. Given the environment Freeman competes in, that system was problematic.

“I can race legally in the World Cup with a temperature as cold as of minus-4,” he says. “The concern that my doctor and I had is if this exposed tube would freeze, I would be in serious trouble. We stayed away from a pump until the Omnipod came out. It’s actually a patch pump. It adheres to the body with an adhesive. A needle goes from the pump into the subcutaneous fat wherever you happen to stick that patch.”

After years of training and carefully selecting the most appropriate mix of boots, skis, bindings and poles for the racing conditions, Freeman notes that pre-race jitters can also influence his blood sugar levels.

“When you get nervous before a race, you leak adrenaline,” he says. “That adrenaline triggers the liver to dump sugar into your system and you can get an elevated blood sugar [level]. I can’t afford to get incredibly nervous before the Olympics and have my blood sugar get out of whack because it will ultimately hurt my performance.” Relaxation techniques and conversations with a team sports psychologist have helped him address those issues.

Freeman wants his story to inspire other people with Type 1 diabetes to follow their own dreams. Working with Eli Lilly since the 2002 Olympics, Freeman travels around the country to talk with kids about their aspirations and diabetes.

“With my initial diagnosis, I was told my dream was not going to come true and you will not be an Olympic-level ski racer,” he said. “I feel very passionately about going to these kids’ camps and making sure that, despite having diabetes, they don’t let anyone tell them there are limits on their lives. Diabetes is very manageable. The medicines and the technology that are coming out are getting better all the time. It’s only a matter of time before it gets cured. Hopefully that will happen in my lifetime. I try to express that, in the meantime, the better you take care of yourself the less diabetes will get in your way.”

When the Vancouver Winter Olympics begin in February 2010, Freeman hopes to fulfill his lifelong dream to stand on the Olympic podium. But he says that’s not his only motivation.

“One of my motivators for trying to get a medal in this endurance sport is, hopefully, I can get more publicity for the fact that diabetes doesn’t have to hold you back,” he says. “Anything is possible with diabetes as long as you are diligent about taking care of it.”

Reflecting on his career as an elite, Olympic-caliber athlete at the cusp of an Olympic medal Freeman says, “I don’t look at the results sheet and say, ‘Wow, I was 12th place today but I was the first diabetic athlete.’ I look at it and say, ‘I was 12th, how am I going to be the best in the world? How am I going to be the best in the world despite having diabetes?’ Being described as a diabetic has never bothered me. It’s my own expectations that are important to me and my expectation is to be the best in the world.”