Tennis Olympic champion Alexander Zverev was ashamed of his diabetes for a long time. Even as a child, he had many bad experiences, Zverev reported in an interview with the French sports newspaper “L’Equipe”.
Even at the beginning of his career at the age of 17 or 18, he denied having the disease. “In the beginning I even hid to inject insulin. I did that in the toilets. When I started dating girls, it was impossible to talk to them about it. I was way too embarrassed to talk about it to address,” said Zverev, who made his illness public a few days ago and announced the establishment of his foundation “Alexander Zverev Foundation – Aufschlag gegen Diabetes”.
He was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when he was three and a half years old. As a child, he had many bad experiences. Once his equipment and insulin were stolen. He found it broken on the ground outside. “I never really got rid of this childhood trauma, it’s still in the back of my mind,” said Zverev. He was also sometimes forbidden to eat cake at birthday parties.
The doctors told him when he was a child that he could not do top-class sport with this disease. “I think I can say today that they were wrong. With this foundation, I want to send the message to parents and children around the world that there are no limits, except those you set for yourself,” emphasized the 25 -year-old who is currently working on his comeback after suffering a serious ligament injury in rehab.
He has no problems practicing his sport. He always keeps his blood glucose meter in his tennis bag. Zverev does not see a major disadvantage. “It’s another thing to deal with, but if I lose it’s my fault. Period. I don’t want to use diabetes as an excuse for losing,” said the world number two.
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