Elena Semechin won gold at the Paralympics last year. It is the most successful year in the almost blind swimmer's career. But then she gets a diagnosis that turns her life upside down.
After removing a malignant brain tumor, Elena Semechin is fighting her way back to the top of the world
It is the last turning point for Elena Krawzow – as she was called back then – in the final race over 100 meters breaststroke at the Paralympics in Tokyo. The almost completely blind swimmer is about a second behind Rebecca Redfern from Britain. It's exciting. Krawzow fights and gets closer and closer to her competitor. Only in the last few meters does the 27-year-old pass and is the first to hit the edge of the pool. The native Kazakh wins gold with a lead of 0.64 seconds.
It is her first win at the Paralympics after winning a silver medal over the same distance in London 2012. “That was the last medal I was missing,” the athlete recalled in a DW interview. “After ten years of hard work, a real load has been lifted from my shoulders.” Krawzow had previously collected titles at European and World Championships and also improved the world record on their parade route. With gold at the Paralympics, however, the swimmer has reached the peak of her career.
“Many athletes fall into a hole after a title like that. That wasn't the case for me. I had a wonderful one time afterwards and I really enjoyed it,” she reports. “The only reason why I couldn't enjoy every day was the headache that was plaguing me.”
“When can I train again?”
Krawzow is being examined and is waiting for a message from her doctors. On the day she was diagnosed, she and her fiancé were choosing their wedding rings. Afterwards she has to drive to the MRI scan. “After the first diagnosis it was clear that something was wrong. And after further examination I was then told that there was a brain tumor in my head. Of course that was a blow.”
Elena Semechin celebrated her greatest success by winning the 100m breaststroke at the Paralympics in Tokyo
Suddenly life was different, she says. “There was no longer any joy, happiness or euphoria, but fear and uncertainty. I didn't know what to expect.” Krawzow cancels all appointments and makes her illness public. “I didn't want to hide it. I didn't want people asking me weird questions,” she says. “That helped me a lot. I was in pretty good control of myself and I think I handled it very well.”
In early November, two days before the operation, Kravtsov married her longtime coach Philip Semechin and changed her last name. Marriage and surgery mark a turning point in the life of the competitive athlete. And after the brain tumor has been removed from her head, she looks straight ahead again. Giving up was and is not an issue for the now 28-year-old. She wants to get back in the pool as soon as possible. “After the operation I woke up and immediately asked the doctor when I could train again.”
Training and chemotherapy run parallel
Just a week later, she begins rehab and chemotherapy. At first, Semechin, as she is now called, only trains outside of the pool because the surgical scar hasn't completely healed yet. “Competitive sport helped me a lot in this phase because my body is used to being extremely stressed. I learned early on what it means to push your limits physically and mentally. I benefit a lot from that,” says Semechin. Your fighting spirit is awakened.
Together with her trainer and husband, she adapts her training plans. More recovery phases “so that I don't completely destroy myself and then can't stand the chemo anymore”. More than ever, Semechin has to listen to her body. The cycles of chemotherapy are different. Sometimes she can train more and sometimes less, she says. “Finding this balance between rest and exertion and to regulate my sporting ambitions down a bit” is the biggest challenge in the current situation.
The German Championships in Berlin are the first competition after Semechin's surgery
Only five months after the brain tumor was removed, Semechin is at the start of the German Championships in Berlin. She just finished another chemo cycle. “I was a little scared,” she reports in an interview with ZDF. “I was really miserable. I was in bed and I was nauseous. I hadn't eaten. But I thought this is the only competition before the world championships where you can swim again.”
Semechin makes it to the finals and ends up in last place in the finals, but it feels like a win. “The goal was that the lifeguard didn't have to fish me out of the water,” she says and is happy: “I was totally relieved that I can still swim at all.”
Big goals for the future< /h2>
In May, Semechin flies to a training camp in Turkey to prepare for the World Cup in Portugal in June. The chemotherapy runs parallel to the training phases, but the 28-year-old accepts the challenge in an impressive way. Already at the age of seven she had to accept that her life would change. At that time, she was diagnosed with Stargardt's disease, the disease that was causing her eyesight to fade more and more. “The fact that this diagnosis has now come about would perhaps tear the rug out from under the feet of many other people, but I saw it as a sign that you have to live in moments,” she says. “I may be enjoying life even more now than before the diagnosis.”
Semechin: “Maybe there is no later”
Semechin will have to live with the cancer because she has not yet conquered the disease. She doesn't know how long she will live – but that doesn't matter at the moment, she says. “I live in the here and now and don't push anything away anymore. Of course, competitive sport still plays a big role in my life, but if I want to get a diving license, for example, then I'll do it and take the time for it,” he said Semechin. “I'm planning it now, because maybe there's no later.”
But your sporting goals remain the same. The World Championships in Portugal should be the first big competition and then the swimmer would like to start at the Paralympics in Paris in 2024 and repeat her success in Tokyo. However, everything depends on the further course of the cancer treatments. “I would like to have a child once I hopefully have overcome the disease,” she says and adds: “I would like to leave someone there in case I die earlier. I would like my family not to be completely alone then.”< /p>