“I can’t breathe,” junior Bella Conway said.
This phrase may sound familiar to many athletes at the school. An overwhelming number of students play sports despite restrictions that asthma can give them.
“My muscles start to tense and I have really bad cramps and stitches, and so I become hunched over. That’s when I know that I have to stop,” Conway, a cross-country and track runner, said.
For some athletes, like junior and baseball player Miller LePree, his asthma rarely restricts his ability to play. LePree said that it’s only really a problem when his allergies are also acting up.
Similarly, senior and soccer captain Dimitri Makrigiorgos said that his asthma is also pretty mild. For Makrigiorgos, his asthma is worst when it is cold or if he is sick or out of shape.
“I can feel my lungs starting to close up, and it gets harder for me to breathe,” Makrigiorgos said. “It’s kind of embarrassing because it’s because I wasn’t in shape. So if I’m in shape, it usually doesn’t happen.”
Conway discovered that she had asthma because she was having a lot of difficulty breathing while running. She now takes an inhaler to each race. Conway said that her inhaler is generally sufficient for managing her asthma.
“If it’s really cold, then even if I use my inhaler, sometimes I will have an asthma attack during a race,” she said. “But that’s usually only during really cold races. Otherwise, the inhaler works fine.”
When Conway has an asthma attack, she has to remind herself to slow down. She said it can be frustrating for her when she knows that she physically can run a faster time, but is not able to at that time because she can’t breathe.
Conway said she doesn’t want to be judged for quitting during a race, but knows her body is telling her to stop.
“It’s kind of a hard decision to make,” she said.
Sophomore Hannah Baker-Lerner said she has had similar experiences; Baker-Lerner often knows that she is strong enough to do the exercises in crew, but feels that her breathing often restricts her.
“I find that I could be really strong and I could push really hard, but my asthma gets in the way,” Baker-Lerner said. “So someone just as strong as me, but without asthma, could be doing better than me. It’s really frustrating.”
All of the athletes agreed that even though they have asthma, they are still able to work hard and improve.
“I’m in shape to run a certain time, but then, during a race, I might slow down a little so that I can breathe better,” Conway said. “But otherwise, asthma doesn’t really restrict me because I’m still able to improve.”
Rebecca Segal can be contacted at [email protected].
