"I never thought I was going to be at the top level again" - Chloé Dygert

Chloé Dygert said she could have very easily walked away from cycling without family and friends to help her as she endured a litany of injuries and illnesses over the last two seasons. It all started when Dygert lacerated her left quadricep in September 2020 as she explains in interview for Velo.

"There were not good days, it was hard. The crash itself, it took everything in my body to be able to want to even compete at the Olympic Games. The pain that I had until I had this last surgery, I never thought I was going to be okay again, I never thought I was going to be at the top level again."

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"With that thought in my head, I got Epstein Barr and then my heart kept having the issues that I had. I never thought that I was going to give up, but I just never thought I was going to be 100 percent again. That was a hard thought for me because I am so competitive and the thought of not being able to perform at the best I know I can."

"That surgery was life-changing. Not just on my bike, but in everyday life. It’s silly stuff, like, I can sit down on a toilet and not hurt, I can get in and out of my car and not hurt, I can put on pants and not hurt, I can put socks on and not hurt," she said. "I thought that’s just how life is going be forever, and that surgery took away all that pain, all of it. But again, the muscle was completely severed and so the blood flow is not the same, and never will be the same."

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