In this episode Geoff and I interviewed Mandy Marquardt.
Mandy Marquardt is an American Sprint track cyclist, representing the US and Team Novo Nordisk, the world's first-all diabetes professional cycling team. Marquardt was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of 16. We talk about her cycling career and competing at an elite level whilst dealing with Type 1 diabetes every day. Mandy is a role model for others coming to terms with type 1 diabetes and races her bike with a purpose to help others to see what’s possible with diabetes.
During the podcast we talk about being Diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes and how she deals with this each and every day. What is Type 1 diabetes and how Mandy uses her cycling and her knowledge to discuss and educate people around the world on this topic.
Mandy talks about her experience riding for team Novo Nordisk, she has been with the team for 10 years now, and how Important it was, and is, to have people around you to talk about Type 1 diabetes and share the different perspectives and experiences with each other. With Team Novo Nordisk, Mandy has met so many young kids through community events and talks, and she sees how they get inspired by her and they inspire Mandy to continue to do even better and be a voice in the Diabetes community.
We talk about how it was cycling in Germany, the difference between the different track disciplines and which one she likes most.
We also touch upon cycling on the road and the safety aspects having encountered a recent near hit by a car.
The T-Town (Trexel Town) Velodrome is an topic we discuss, and Mandy talks about the different programs and the beauty of her home track. The preffered cycling center aka The Lehigh valley velodrome in Trexel Town, is The track in the US, and maybe even the world. :-) Everyone loves to go there. It’s a great community where nobody feels alone and everyone takes care of each other.
And yes, we also discuss Zwift and how Mandy got into the virtual world using her Wattbike to recover and meet up with her Novo Nordisk teammates online.
Just after recording the podcast, Mandy got selected to the USA Olympic long team!
Mandy is a 18x U.S. National Champion, 2x American Records, 2020 Olympic Hopeful.
https://www.teamnovonordisk.com/
https://www.instagram.com/mandymarquardt/
https://usacycling.org/index.php?p=article/mandy-marquardt-in-our-own-words
https://thevelodrome.com/
https://wattbike.com/us
https://www.zwift.com/