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Siobhan-Marie O’Connor is a silver medal-winning Olympic swimmer, diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis in 2012.
Siobhan-Marie O’Connor
In 2016, 20-year-old Siobhan-Marie O'Connor became the first British woman to win an Olympic medal in the 200m individual medley, missing out on a gold medal by just 0.3 seconds.
Siobhan-Marie was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis after competing at the London 2012 Olympics, and has shared her experiences of living with Inflammatory Bowel Disease.
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I was worried when I first had these problems as I felt ill but didn't know why, so I was relieved when the diagnosis was made. I really get run down easily and get bouts of tiredness. I am a weakling, but I don't want to feel sorry for myself because if it's not illness it might be injury or whatever. Dealing with these things is part of professional sport. It’s absolutely not ideal and I went through a pretty rough time of it before I got it diagnosed. I look back and don’t know how I swam when I was so ill. I see pictures of myself and I’m 10kg lighter than I am now and was so tired all the time.
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