Newly-crowned national mountain bike champion Sammie Maxwell only knew how to go fast. But slowing down and putting her health first has helped her back to top speed.
Sammie Maxwell felt confused as she stood on top of the podium at this year's mountain bike national championships. She hadn't won because of all the training she'd done. She'd won because she'd hardly done any.
Six hours a week for the month leading up to the champs. That was all.
The 20-year-old arrived at the nationals in Christchurch with no expectations; only wanting to encourage the younger riders and give back to the sport that's already given her so much.
So while she did that with an impressive two-and-a-half-minute victory - claiming both the elite and U23 titles - the most important lesson she was teaching those coming through the ranks is the story of how she got there.
Like many young girls, Maxwell never thought missing her period was unusual. She just assumed it was what happened when you trained hard. It wasn't until the Youth Olympics in 2018, when a New Zealand doctor pointed out how serious it can be, that she realised it was a big deal.
Maxwell was encouraged to get some hormone tests done, and she also went to get her bone density checked.
"It was pretty shocking," she remembers. "When I asked when I'd get my results back, the lady in the room just looked at me and said she could already tell I was going to be quite bad."
Leading into those 2018 Games, she was recovering from an eating disorder. The support from her parents meant she was only "really, really bad" for a few months, but under-fuelling her body while training had started to break her down. When her tests came back, she was diagnosed with RED-S - or Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport - a syndrome affecting athletes, in particular females, around the world.
In essence, it means athletes aren't eating enough food to fuel their bodies for the energy that they're putting out.
Maxwell was in the bottom one-to-five percent category for female bone density. It was a precarious situation for a fearless mountain biker to be in.
"With mountain biking, you crash all the time. You need to be strong, both with your muscles and your bone density or else you're going to be constantly injured, constantly trying to fight your way back up," she says.
RED-S also completely wiped out her energy levels.
"You might go out and do a pretty average ride, or a pretty average race, and you feel pretty good about it. But then the next day, you just wake up and you're so exhausted, you can't even pedal," she says.
Growing up, Maxwell was determined to push herself to the limit. It was all about seeing how hard she could train, even if that meant her health got trampled in the process.
"One thing that's always stuck with me, because I've been listening to quite a few podcasts about RED-S, is that athletes always have this mind frame that we have to sacrifice for our sport," Maxwell says. "We have to sacrifice if we want to be the best. I always thought I'll sacrifice going out for lunch with my friends because I need to go for a training ride, or I'll sacrifice having my favourite meal because it's not the ideal carbohydrate ratio.
"It's quite interesting to learn that you don't have to sacrifice that stuff, if anything, it's just better to fuel your body properly."
The arrival of coronavirus last year gave Maxwell the chance to pause and prioritise her health. There was no need to put pressure on herself to perform at nationals, or in Europe, or at the world champs.
"It was always a bit go, go, go. Now I'm just really focused on some hormones and getting those tested weekly. It's been a bit of a journey," she says.
Born in Taupo, she's now in her second year at Victoria University in Wellington, studying biomedical science, majoring in molecular pathology and human genetics. She loves poring over her textbooks, but admits it was a big change heading to the capital.
"I didn't manage it very well. I did quite badly in the first half of the year with my hormones and my weight, and when I came home, my parents were like 'this is not cool'," she says.
This year, she's cooking for herself, and making it a priority.
"It's quite nice to see those improvements, and it is improving slowly, but it's not something you can just wake up and change in a few days," she says.
Although her hormone levels are better since the nationals, she's keeping her training pattern relatively similar, with the hope of returning to a full load later in the year. Depending on the pandemic situation, she's looking at some World Cup events or trips to Australia in the future. But her health now comes first before any decisions are made about competing.
After she won the 2021 national title - beating Kate McIlroy, who's represented New Zealand at three Commonwealth Games in three different sports - Maxwell turned to social media to share the battle she'd been going through.
"I hope that by sharing my struggles with under-fuelling, that somewhere some girl reading this has noticed that she missed her period last week - due to her brain not getting enough energy to produce the needed hormones - and that it isn’t something that should be brushed off," she wrote. "But [it's] actually a sign that her body isn’t in a good state, or that someone finally understands that the reason they wake up after a race absolutely shattered and truly drained is because they aren’t eating enough to recover and could be prevented by have some extra snacks before bed."
Down the track, Maxwell still dreams of going to the Olympics. New Zealand currently doesn't have enough UCI points to secure a spot for a female rider, which is something she wants to change. She's also keen to keep throwing herself into her studies, with the desire to do a PhD one day or work in a cancer research lab.
"I love being busy, I love prioritising. I'm stretching right now - I'm on the phone and I'm stretching," she laughs.
Only now, she's not stretching herself beyond the limit.
