Alexander Zverev or how to reach the tennis elite with diabetes

As a child, Alexander Zverev was told he could never be an elite athlete due to type 1 diabetes, but that motivated him to prove otherwise, the Olympic champion said Saturday.

The German tennis player, who is returning from a broken ankle suffered at Roland Garros last year, was diagnosed at the age of three with this chronic disease that prevents the body from producing insulin.

“My parents were very scared. They were very worried. My mother cried a lot,” Zverev told Australia’s Channel Nine television about his family’s reaction to the diagnosis.

“Many parents are intimidated by doctors who say ‘your child is very limited,’ but that’s not the case,” he said.

“I always told the doctors: ‘Yes, well, I want to play tennis. It’s the only thing that matters to me,'” she said.

“Some were saying, ‘No, you have to stop… There’s no way to be a professional athlete with this disease. There’s no way you can play such a physically tough sport.’

“That stuck in my head, it made me quite angry, to be honest. I don’t think any limits should be put on children, because I think it’s not fair to them,” he explained.

At the age of 25, Zverev is established as one of the great players in the world, with 19 ATP titles and the Tokyo-2020 gold medal, and he opened a foundation a year ago to help young people with the same disease.

“That was the goal of my foundation, to send a message that you can have a normal life,” he said. “There are a lot of Olympic gold medalists with diabetes, great soccer players in Europe too,” she added.

Zverev admitted that at first he did not accept his condition and tried to hide it from the world, but last year he made it public and now he even injects himself with insulin during matches.

Before, “I would go to the bathroom to do it, but it’s not the right thing to do, because there’s nothing to be ashamed of,” he said.

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AFP