Fiona Wylde and Diabetes: From Type 1 to Number 1
Earlier this year in collaboration discussions with the APP World Tour Team, they suggested I share some of their blogs they’d recently written on the APP World Tour website in order for more women to discover the amazing world of elite paddling. This is the third of those blogs (check out the others HERE), and I’m so grateful to the APP World Tour team for their support for She SUPs and what we stand for, and their desire to grow female participation in SUP racing across the world.
The APP World Tour has been crowning Professional World Champions for the sport of Stand Up Paddling since 2010 when it officially launched the World Championship Tour. It has produced World Tour events across 6 Continents and nurtured talent from across all 4 corners of the World in the creation of a dynamic sports property that is truly global.
In this blog the incredible Fiona Wylde opens up to APP about her journey to the top of the global SUP rankings in both SUP surfing and racing as a woman with Type One diabetes.
Fiona Wylde surfing in the APP World Tour’s Barbardos stop in 2019.
It’s June 2014: Fiona Wylde is on the APP World Tour podium, she is second in the Windsurfing World Cup and 3rd in Battle of the Paddle. The flurry of achievements lands her a sponsorship deal with Starboard and a coveted spot on their All Stars team - Fiona Wylde is the one to watch and the one to beat.
She is collecting trophy after trophy as she travels the world, staying on top of her game; until she is competing in one race and goes from leading the pack of women to 6th place in a matter of minutes. “I put the loss down to lack of experience at first, but I had two more races to do and I didn’t get any better. I felt exhausted and I was loosing so much weight, so I knew something was wrong.”
Fiona Wylde racing in Japan in 2016, photographed in front of Mount Fuji.
The bombshell dropped the day she graduated high school. Fiona went to the doctors office, had her blood sugar checked and right then and there was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. “I was in shock when I found out. I was starting my career as a professional athlete, in a sport that I loved, and my body doesn’t work. Trying to put all that together in my mind in that doctor’s office was too much.”
Type 1 diabetes causes the level of glucose (sugar) in your blood to become too high. It happens when your body cannot produce enough of a hormone called insulin, which controls blood glucose. You need daily injections of insulin to keep your blood glucose levels under control. What does this mean for a professional athlete? Fiona described having high blood sugar as "Feeling like syrup is running through your blood, making you feel very lethargic”- complicating things for an athlete that moves quickly for a living.
Fiona Wylde competing at Sunset Beach in 2017.
Despite being delivered life-changing news, Fiona did not waste anytime moping. Just four days after she was diagnosed, she started on Insulin and travelled to Europe with her dad to race and in an act that gave the middle finger to her diagnosis, Fiona won her first race.
Wylde spent a year learning how to travel and compete with diabetes because “everything changed: the way I ate, the way I trained, the way I recovered” and this became even more complicated when she was diagnosed with Celiac disease a year later. But as with her diabetes diagnosis, she took the additional diagnosis in her stride, or should we say in her paddle. In 2016 Fiona unleashed her potential upon the SUP scene and snatched the women’s Racing World Title on the APP World Tour.
Fiona appeared totally unfazed with having a life-altering disease, so the APP asked her if she always maintained such a positive mindset. “When things aren’t going right, it is really easy to get down on yourself. Having a disease is frustrating and I wish I didn’t have to deal with it, but I try not to focus on that because that would take a lot of energy away from managing my Type 1 in a way that can be positive.”
Fiona Wylde competing in Maui during the 2016 APP World Tour, the year she won her first world title.
In a bid to push her limits even more, Fiona entered in to the most extreme Stand Up Paddle race in the world - Red Bull Heavy Water. This was the first year women were invited to compete, so Wylde made history in being in the first fleet of women to participate in the event and in being the only athlete with Type One diabetes.
The event sees athletes paddle 7.5 miles through the very choppy San Francisco Bay waters under the Golden Gate Bridge and to Ocean Beach. The athletes battle a relentless current, 15 foot waves and a blinding fog - a perfect recipe for adrenaline and a perfect recipe for disaster for an athlete with diabetes.
“One of the things that is not talked about very much is that adrenaline spikes blood sugar and there was a lot of adrenaline going on in that race. We were delayed on the start line by two hours so I started the race with high blood sugar and I couldn’t bring it back down- I really struggled. I was fighting with the conditions and fighting with myself to stay focused, stay upright and keep going. I was disappointed with my management in that race. It is a brutal race and that made it even harder.”
Fiona Wylde approaching the Golden Gate Bridge during the Red Bull Heavy Water event in 2019.
Wylde’s trailblazing does not end at Red Bull Heavy Water - she has been leading the way for women in the sport since her early days of competition. The first time Fiona competed at the APP’s Sunset Beach event, she competed in the men’s trials as the female event was held at Turtle Bay, and in true Fiona spirit, she wanted more of a challenge. She charged her way through the men’s trials and into the main event. “There needs to be less division between men and women in sports and there needs to be inclusiveness towards those who went to test themselves and go for something.”
A few years later, when the women's event was officially introduced at Sunset Beach, Fiona Wylde won the whole event. “That was quite the shocker. I don’t really see myself as a surfer, I love to surf and compete so to go and compete against the best stand up surfers in the world and win was mind-boggling.”
She has finished second among the women at the Red Bull Heavy Water event. She is currently sitting at number three in SUP racing and “would like to win a stand up surfing world title.” Oh, and she is also going to Oregon State University where she is studying geography and geospatial sciences. This is fitting since she has already managed to navigate her way through the challenges of both Type 1 diabetes and being a world champion “water woman.”
YES Fiona!!! I absolutely love your story, your grit, and your determination. A huge thanks to Fiona for being such an epic trailblazer and of course to the APP World Tour for sharing this story.
You can find Fiona on Instagram @fiona_wylde and what do you think… future Olympic Athlete when SUP becomes an Olympic sport - which I predict could be soon?? You heard it here first folks ;) haha
Take care all!
Vikki x