17/05/2006
A pump the size of a pager sits permanently to the waist of Canadian Olympian Chris Jarvis. It enables him to live his life pretty much as regular as possible. But there’s nothing much that’s regular about Jarvis.
Jarvis starts off by talking about how he got into rowing, describing how he began playing American football with the indoor rowing machine being used as off-season training.
“Then,” says Jarvis, “rowing started to take over.”
Jarvis goes on to explain his rapid rise in the sport going to the Canadian high school championships and winning both the pair and the four, gaining a rowing scholarship to college in the United States and going on to become an under-23 medallist before being pulled into Canada’s very successful men’s eight in 2004. Making it to the Athens Olympics, Jarvis raced in a highly favoured pair.
As Jarvis continues to list his rowing achievements he calmly adds, “I’m a diabetic. I have been since I was 14.”
Lifting up his shirt Jarvis reveals his constant companion, an insulin pump. Jarvis can and must regulate the amount of insulin that flows into his body through a needle.
“Do I feel it? Yeah I feel it. It feels like a needle is in me.”
Every second day Jarvis has to move the needle to a new spot to ensure continued flow of the insulin. Mainly it is in his backside, an extra issue in his chosen sit-down sport.
The needle inserts leave scars. “I can’t do any nude modelling,” confesses Jarvis. “The scars heal eventually but sometimes they get infected then I have to find a new spot.”
“But,” says Jarvis putting it into perspective, “it’s a small price to pay for having the right blood sugar level.”
“Yes, it’s affected my rowing. It’s been a challenge almost every day,” says Jarvis as he goes on to explain how he has had to prove himself to coaches. “Team mates see the highs and lows so they wonder if it’s going to happen in racing.”
“My university coach said I was a risk, so I felt like I should step up to a level that no one could lose trust in me.”
How Jarvis got diabetes is not known. He says there are many theories, some based on the pancreas being attacked by white blood cells and killing off the ability to produce insulin. According to the Diabetes Exercise and Sports Association, DESA, athletes who get diabetes usually get it as elite athletes.
Rowing’s most famous diabetic, Sir Steve Redgrave was diagnosed with diabetes while still training. He already had four Olympic golds and can only be described as Olympic fit when he was diagnosed with diabetes. Although a setback, it didn’t stop Redgrave from continuing on to Olympic gold medal number five.
Jarvis is unusual in the earliness of the onset of his case, at just 14 years old, so managing the issue has been an integral part of his rowing career.
The only rower with juvenile diabetes to make the Athens Olympics, Jarvis has received help for his medical costs though an award from the DESA. “I was without medical coverage and needing to beg and borrow for my supplies, reusing needles many times and worse. It was a saving step in my approach to Athens.”
But now support and medical technology has gone one step further.
“An insulin pump was out of my reach before Athens financially, but now with support from a company I have been able to trial a new product which combines continuous glucose monitoring with the already favourable results of an insulin pump. The pump is basically a mechanical pancreas to distribute insulin as programmed along with manual shots whenever food is taken. With the high variability of blood sugars resulting from exercise and stress it has been an awesome step to have a continuous stream of data available right on my pump. I can see glucose levels and trends at the push of a button, which allow me to make a more informed decision.”
Jarvis contrasts this to rowing at Athens. “I was testing 20 times a day to be aware of my sugars. Any time spent out of my zone I would pay for with dehydration, fatigue or lack of coordination.
Currently finishing his chemical engineering degree, Jarvis has every intention of continuing on towards Beijing especially after the disappointment in Athens when his pair was disqualified for crossing into another lane.
“I don’t want to tell the story to my grandchildren that I made it to the Olympics but didn’t get to the finish.”
Xeno Muller, Olympic gold and silver medalist, indoor rowing, rowing technique.
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