She learns that her symptoms classify her as having "severe hypothyroidism," and a nurse practitioner tells her that if she doesn't start taking synthetic hormones immediately, she'll wind up in a coma or dead before she can get a second medical opinion.īut even once treated, there's a long road ahead to get to the start line in Hopkinton. The untreated condition sunk Linden into a deep depression, fully depleted her body and nearly ended her professional running career. "In my mind, thyroid medication was a shortcut drug, something athletes had sought out or been instructed to take with no true medical need," she writes. They had signed Dathan Ritzenhein to a contract with the Hansons Distance Project just a few months after it was revealed that he had taken synthetic thyroid hormones while under Alberto Salazar and the Nike Oregon Project, though he had no medical need to do so. Her strong feelings on the subject had also recently caused a rift in her relationship with her long-time coaches Keith and Kevin Hanson. Athletics lobbied the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to ban it in 2015. Thyroid medication has never been listed as a banned substance, though USADA and U.K.
Thyroid medication is taken to combat the chronic fatigue and weight gain that can come with low thyroid levels, and it has become controversial in the endurance sports world due to concern that athletes could take it to improve performance. That makes it all the more confusing when she is diagnosed with hypothyroidism, a common condition in which the thyroid gland fails to produce enough thyroid hormone to support bodily functions. Linden is a fierce advocate for clean sport, and the fact that her defining Olympic experience was the 2016 Games, in which both the gold and silver medalists in the women's marathon later served doping bans, hardens her perspective. (Photo Credit: Brooks) Hypothyroidism: A Life-changing Diagnosis Desiree Linden crosses the finish line at the 2018 Boston Marathon, the first American woman to place first in 33 years.
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