Sarah Voss has already won. The simple act of stepping inside the serene Bercy Arena, soaked in a calming teal palette for podium training at the 2024 Paris Olympics is the culmination of an exasperating journey and a proper diagnosis.
“I would say the road here was very bumpy,” says Voss, the two-time German Olympic gymnast. “I got sick and I was very frustrated. I didn’t know what’s going on with my body. And the doctors didn’t know what to do anymore.”
The doctors eventually figured it out. Voss reveals for the first time that she was diagnosed with Lyme-Borreliose. This was on top of another diagnosis of mononucleosis. The frustration Voss felt as she suffers from extreme fatigue, requiring her to take frequent trips to the hospital is a common story told amongst those who suffer from Lyme. It’s estimated that one in seven people on the planet are infected with Lyme disease according to a recent study in BMJ Global Health.
In the 2022 documentary The Quiet Epidemic, the storytellers go through the history of Lyme and how ubiquitous the slow diagnosis can be and the impact it can have on individuals and those around them. In the United States, it’s estimated that 476,000 people are diagnosed with Lyme disease every year according to the Center for Disease Control. The fact that so many go undiagnosed makes this the quiet epidemic. And for those who don’t catch it early, they become the 10-20% of the population who then suffer long-term, debilitating symptoms.
For now Voss has been able to manage her disease. The elite athlete has been able to push her body to Olympic-quality feats, which isn’t something she was always so certain of.
“I know that I can do better. I know that if I feel better, I can do better,” says Voss who missed three and a half weeks in the gym leading up to the Paris Games as she struggled with the disease. “For now, I’m very happy that I’m okay, that I can balance, and I’ll try to be as good as I can on Sunday and then we’ll see how it turns out.”
For more information on Lyme, visit www.LymeDisease.org
* Correction: An earlier version said Voss was diagnosed with Babesiosis not Lyme-Borreliose.
I have Lyme too, and often can’t stand to even walk very far. That she’s an elite gymnast with it is incredible.
It seems people may sometimes be misdiagnosed with Lyme or long Lyme disease when in fact they have babesiosis, a completely separate disease, except that they are both tic borne. Babesiosis is caused by a parasite, Lyme is caused by a bacterium.
Yes there is more to it then Lyme babesia Bart virus EBV ect
The reporter has mistakenly identified babesiosis as a strain of lyme and it is not so the correction would be that but babesiosis is a separate illness and is a parasite, a cousin of malaria. That is a very common co-infection of Lyme. This girl probably has Lyme too.
He used the German word borreliosis, which is Lyme disease. She’s a German gymnast.
This is an incredible story. I host a podcast called the Love, Hope, Lyme podcast. If you’d like to know more about tick-borne diseases and how to support a loved one who is a Lyme survivor, check it out on YouTube or Apple Podcasts.
· my late husband, Jack Gordon, and I never saw a tick embedded NOR did we ever had bulls-eye rashes or any rashes when we got sick.
·
· below is our TRUE STORY and my husband’s brain also had nematode parasitic round worms having LYME DISEASE/TICK in it too.
·
· Stephen colbert, you owe an apology to robert kennedy, jr. and all other folks who have parasitic worms in their brains like my husband.
·
· I’m 54 yrs. chronic lyme/bartonella; I was MISDIAGNOSED 35 yrs. by 40-50+ drs. before my lyme diagnosis.
·
· my husband was NEVER diagnosed in 35 yrs. until his 1st brain autopsy made worldwide history!!
·
· lewy body dementia causing his visual/violent hallucinations like Robin Williams plus neuroborreliosis / chronic lyme disease plus
·
· 3 more tick-borne diseases:
· relapsing fever,
· borrelia miyamotoi
· bartonella / cat scratch fever, 2 species
·
· plus 2 dozen parasitic nematode round worms having lyme INSIDE of them!!!
·
· pathologist then got sick with frontal temporal dementia where he couldn’t do anything.
·
· he had promised me to write this up as a case study and publish it the next year 2016; it did NOT happen due to his own health–frontal temporal dementia.
·
· then his brain went to Univ. of Minn; she found lyme and bartonella; she didn’t publish either.
·
· then I heard about NATIONAL DISEASE RESEARCH INTERCHANGE, NDRI, and read their home page to see what diseases/illnesses they were interested in.
·
· they accepted his brain next where they did some studying before it was selected to go to:
·
· BAY AREA FOUNDATION’S “BIO BANK’ for researcher to contact them for specific things they were interested in.
·
· NEW YORK CITY’S COLUMBIA UNIV. TICK-BORNE DISEASE RESEARCH CENTER, TBDRC, then was sent his brain doing research.
·
· when they got done, his brain was sent to NEW ORLEANS TULANE UNIV. TBDRC for last 1.5 years.
·
· they contacted me last week, his brain will be sent to HARVARD UNIV. to test specifically for a MOLECULE testing specifically for lyme disease.
·
· by the time his brain got to Monica Embers, New Orleans, his brain had been in special formalin for 7-8 years where it was no longer viable!
·
· once they get the results, New York & New Orleans will finally WRITE CASE STUDY by summer and be PUBLISHED LATE THIS YEAR.
·
· it’s taken me 9 years to get this far for them to write up a case study and publish in a medical journal to help other patients/families and educate the medical drs. who “it’s all in your head crap”.
·
· I am 55 years chronic lyme misdiagnosed for 35 yrs. by 40-50+ drs. plus bartonella found on jack’s 2nd brain autopsy in 2016.
How can Australia not recognise Lyme when the study shows 1 in 7 on the Planet have it. Beggars belief.
i’ll have to look for events with sarah voss in them now; i’m just now seeing this for the 1st time now. here’s my husband’s tick-borne disease and more story to date below!
· my late husband, Jack Gordon, and I never saw a tick embedded NOR did we ever had bulls-eye rashes or any rashes when we got sick.
·
· below is our TRUE STORY and my husband’s brain also had nematode parasitic round worms having LYME DISEASE/TICK in it too.
·
· stephen colbert, you owe an apology to robert kennedy, jr. and all other folks who have parasitic worms in their brains like my husband.
·
· I’m 54 yrs. chronic lyme/bartonella; I was MISDIAGNOSED 35 yrs. by 40-50+ drs. before my lyme diagnosis.
·
· my husband was NEVER diagnosed in 35 yrs. until his 1st brain autopsy made worldwide history!!
·
· lewy body dementia causing his visual/violent hallucinations like Robin Williams plus neuroborreliosis / chronic lyme disease plus
·
· 3 more tick-borne diseases:
· relapsing fever,
· borrelia miyamotoi
· bartonella / cat scratch fever, 2 species
·
· plus 2 dozen parasitic nematode round worms having lyme INSIDE of them!!!
·
· pathologist then got sick with frontal temporal dementia where he couldn’t do anything.
·
· he had promised me to write this up as a case study and publish it the next year 2016; it did NOT happen due to his own health–frontal temporal dementia.
·
· then his brain went to Univ. of Minn; she found lyme and bartonella; she didn’t publish either.
·
· then I heard about NATIONAL DISEASE RESEARCH INTERCHANGE, NDRI, and read their home page to see what diseases/illnesses they were interested in.
·
· they accepted his brain next where they did some studying before it was selected to go to:
·
· BAY AREA FOUNDATION’S “BIO BANK’ for researcher to contact them for specific things they were interested in.
·
· NEW YORK CITY’S COLUMBIA UNIV. TICK-BORNE DISEASE RESEARCH CENTER, TBDRC, then was sent his brain doing research.
·
· when they got done, his brain was sent to NEW ORLEANS TULANE UNIV. TBDRC for last 1.5 years.
·
· they contacted me last week, his brain will be sent to HARVARD UNIV. to test specifically for a MOLECULE testing specifically for lyme disease.
·
· by the time his brain got to Monica Embers, New Orleans, his brain had been in special formalin for 7-8 years where it was no longer viable!
·
· once they get the results, New York & New Orleans will finally WRITE CASE STUDY by summer and be PUBLISHED LATE THIS YEAR.
·
· it’s taken me 9 years to get this far for them to write up a case study and publish in a medical journal to help other patients/families and educate the medical drs. who “it’s all in your head crap”.
·
· I am 55 years chronic lyme misdiagnosed for 35 yrs. by 40-50+ drs. plus bartonella found on jack’s 2nd brain autopsy in 2016.
I would like to know which hospital helped her, as we have no hospitals that will help with chronic lyme and coinfections.?
My daughter was very ill for years with mis-diagnoses and being told she wasnt really ill and the rest of the same old story. Then we found Dr. BERNARD RAXLEN in New Jersey who correctly diagnosed her with Lyme and its many co-infections.He has been treating her virtually (Thank you Covid) for the past 5 years with combinations of IV and oral antibiotics and supplements. Today she announced she is free of Lyme and all the coinfections. We are so grateful to him. She has her life back!
It’s great that she had her dream of going to the Olympics. We need to make sure that the public doesn’t think everyone with Lyme or co- infections can achieve such heights if they just try. For some, it is a win to make it to the grocery store. It can be a very confounding illness.