Former track cyclist Elis Ligtlee has an aggressive form of breast cancer. The 2016 Olympic champion has been found to have metastases in five lymph nodes in her armpit.
“The past week has been a rollercoaster. Our life has been turned upside down,” Ligtlee writes on Instagram on Tuesday. “What started as my annual check-up because of the BRCA1 gene quickly turned into a series of tests: first an MRI, then echoes, biopsies and finally a PET scan.”
“They were days full of tension and waiting, always with the hope that it might not be so bad,” writes Ligtlee, who also shares good news. The PET scan showed no distant metastases.
“But honestly: I have never felt so much stress in my body. It was as if I felt something everywhere and my head was working overtime. The relief that nothing has been found at a distance is great. But I will not soon forget the tension of those days.”
Ligtlee will soon start a treatment process with healing as the goal. In the coming months, she will undergo chemotherapy, followed by surgery and radiation. “What this means exactly for my work and availability, I will see per phase. For now, I know that I need time and space to enter this process.”
Litglee stopped track cycling in 2018 at the age of 24 because she said she no longer enjoyed the sport. The highlight of her career was the Olympic gold medal in the keirin in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro. In total, she won twelve medals at World Championships, European Championships and the Games.