By: Mate Mackenzie

Some call it bad luck, but I just call it life. We all have to deal with illness and injury while we are training and competing at any level.

In the past couple of years my so-called "luck" has not been in my favour. Between injury and illness, training was tough. From mono to hurt hips, I never gave up.
The most important thing to succeed in anything is to never give up. Confidence, willpower and determination will get you everywhere and anywhere in life. You can do anything if you believe in yourself and never give up.

Two years ago, I got my first injury, a hurt ankle, I fell biking and hurt my ankle and couldn't train for a long time, I remember getting very discouraged from training and sad, when I started up again, I felt so out of shape and behind, but quickly, with confidence returned to my normal state of training.
Later that year, migraines kicked in. Pounding headaches that left me shaken for days after. It was almost unbearable; I was definitely not in any shape to train. I soon got over this illness and returned to my training once again.

The year after that was even worse. Mononucleosis, mono, as most call it. That was a very tiring, and painful experience, at its first stages, it was more like a very bad case of strep throat, which moved on to being tired all the time. That lasted for seven gruelling months. After that, I got right back into it.

This year, I have put my hip out of place twice, but hopefully will have a great, injury-free rest of the season.

The most important thing to surviving sports is confidence and determination; with those anyone can accomplish the hardest of tasks and come out on top of the world. In the end, everything will pay off and if it doesn't, well at least you had fun!