Veteran Montgomery recovers remarkably from artery blockage
Athlete qualifies for Olympic triathlon, 10,000 metres only months after surgery

BEVERLEY SMITH
Sports Reporter

Toronto -- Sometimes when she thinks about it, Carol Montgomery feels overwhelmed.

At 34, she's on the brink of competing in her first Olympic Games. You would think that would be enough to make anybody's heart flutter.

But Montgomery has more to think about than most. She could have lost her leg last year because of an artery blockage, but she cleared that hurdle with major surgery only six months ago.

Despite it all, Montgomery has qualified for not only one sport but two at the Sydney Games: triathlon and the 10,000-metre run. Neither are sports for the weak of heart.

"I look at this huge scar on my leg and think about [what the doctor] actually did," she said, resting before she competes in the World Cup triathlon in Toronto today.

"I can't believe I'm running and doing this kind of effort with an artery that has a vein sutured on top of it. It overwhelms me that I had something so freaky and weird wrong with me."

Only three months after her surgery, Montgomery bounced back to win a World Cup triathlon in Rio de Janeiro and qualified for the Sydney Olympics.

The next month, Montgomery shaved 15 seconds off her best mark for 10,000 metres at the Mount Saint Antonio College Relays in California, easily beating the Olympic qualifying time.

She had set her previous best time in 1995. She hadn't even run a 10,000-metre race since 1995.

Then she became an Olympic medal contender when she finished second at the world triathlon championships in April in Perth, Australia, four months after surgery. Montgomery astonished everybody with her run. When she got off her bicycle after a 40-kilometre ride, she was only 28th.

She passed 27 people during the run and was only seven seconds behind the winner when a volunteer mistakenly halted the race after only three laps of the track instead of four. Many believe she should have won.

National coach Barrie Shepley says Montgomery hasn't reached her peak yet. It's remarkable, considering that her career began to slide markedly two years ago. In the early days of Olympic-distance triathlon, Montgomery was a star, having won a silver medal at the 1990 world championships and a bronze in 1996. But in 1998, she started five triathlons and didn't finish any. She took six weeks off and her leg didn't get any better.

Montgomery's symptoms gradually got worse, so that sometimes her left thigh would cramp up, feel fatigued and go numb. She won a bronze medal at the Pan American Games last summer on a good day. But when she went to Montreal for the world championships last September, she had to pull out at the last minute.

"I went out for a run and my calf completely cramped up on me," she said. "It was the first time I had symptoms in my lower leg. It didn't loosen up overnight. I tried to warm up for the race, but I couldn't even start that race."

Eventually, Montgomery gave up cycling and then tried light runs. But even then, her leg would cramp and go numb. She gave up running on Nov. 6. She considered retirement. She knew something was very wrong.

However, just by chance, while surfing the Internet, Montgomery stumbled across a story about a French cyclist who had symptoms similar to hers. A doctor finally diagnosed her condition as a blocked external iliac artery, which runs from just below the navel to the groin.

To keep blood flowing to the left leg, doctors removed a vein from the same leg and sewed it on top of the artery.

Three weeks later, Montgomery was back swimming. She still wasn't convinced her problems were solved. For a month, she was still in pain and couldn't run. All of a sudden, everything changed.

"Almost overnight, it seemed like I could do what I wanted to do, without any limitations," she said. "I know I surprised everybody by coming back so strong and so fast. I was really lucky."

When she ran in Rio, she was cautious -- until she hit the final 10-kilometre run. "I couldn't believe how easy the run felt," she said.

Three of the better runners in the sport were ahead of her. Montgomery pulled up behind them and thought, "Man, they're running slow."

She left them in her dust. At every lap, Canadian Les McDonald, who is president of the International Triathlon Union, tried to wave her down, saying she was starting out too fast. After the first 2.5 kilometres, Montgomery was already 30 seconds ahead of her competitors.

Now, Montgomery is brimming with confidence because she feels healthy. The last time she felt really healthy was in 1996, when she tried to make the Olympic team in track but missed the standard by four seconds.

"Now I don't have to worry about not finishing," she said, thinking of the days when everybody thought she was beginning to lose her mind.

"Running in the Olympics is what I've always wished and dreamed for," she said. Her only wish would be that the triathlon, which will be her best shot at a medal, could finish in the Olympic stadium, with a crowd cheering.

But Montgomery has already won, just getting to Sydney.

Reprinted with permission

Back to Triathlon Index