Swimming legend Michael Klim says he’ll ‘keep fighting’ despite health struggle

After revealing that he had been diagnosed with a rare neurological disorder in 2020, swimming great Michael Klim has revealed he remains hopeful for a cure and that he will “keep fighting” until that day arrives.

Klim was diagnosed with chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP), which according to the Brain Foundation “is a neurological disorder that results in slowly progressive weakness and loss of feeling in the legs and arms”.

The former Olympian took to his blog in July 2022, where he opened up about living with the condition while revealing that he had been diagnosed two years ago after “dealing with chronic ankle problems and degenerative back issues for quite some time”.

He made the surprising admission in an effort to raise awareness for those impacted by the condition.

“Over two years ago I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder called Chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP) which is a neurological disorder condition that targets your body’s nerves, especially the areas of the arms, hands, legs, and feet,” he revealed.

“Symptoms aren’t the same for everyone but in my case, it has affected my legs and feet.”

 

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Klim recently revealed to Sunrise that despite the last three years being “very up and down”, he remains determined to “keep fighting” as he holds onto the hope that one day a cure will be found.

“I’ve had an enormous amount of support from the Australian public and my swimming community just to get through this, so I’ll keep fighting and hopefully we can find a cure one day,” Klim said.

“Hopefully we can put all our heads together, maybe there are certain treatments outside the realm we’re thinking of.

“Maybe there’s future treatments that we can implement and…. we can knock it off.”

As the quest for a cure continues, Klim is taking matters into his own hands with the launch of his foundation which will work to raise funds for CIDP research and awareness about the condition.

“That’s definitely a big motivating factor for me now and I am putting a lot of thought and effort into that now,” he previously told The Sydney Morning Herald.

“I am working hard to not focus on the things I can’t do anymore.

“I have to focus on the things I can do.”

Despite facing some setbacks, Klim was recently inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in recognition of his incredible achievements during his competitive swimming career.

 

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Klim described making it into the Hall of Fame as a “surreal” moment and that he was grateful to have his parents and wife alongside him to celebrate the momentous occasion.

“For all our successes there is a lot of people that come along with it for the ride, and sometimes the good and the bad, and it was really great to be able to share those moments with them as well,” he told Sunrise.