Elite breaststroke talent Nick Mahabir has been dealt an unexpected hand that puts his swimming future in doubt.
Mahabir, the Singaporean Record holder in all three breaststroke events and multi-time U.S. Junior Championship gold medalist, began to feel fatigue and body aches in June 2023. He first chalked it up to hard training, but then when he began having fainting spells, he realized it might be something more serious.
Despite competing impressively last summer, including setting new National Records in the 100 breast (59.96) and 200 breast (2:11.87) at the U.S. Pro Championships in July, Mahabir said he was feeling at “60%” energy-wise and eventually found out why after blood tests in August confirmed he contracted the Epstein-Barr virus.
“It continued to get harder,” the 18-year-old told The Strait Times. “The hardest part is the brain fog (memory problems, lack of mental clarity and an inability to focus).
“It’s like you want to do something but your mind cannot will your body to move.
“I was not able to train and simple tasks, like getting out of bed, were a struggle. I slept 12 to 16 hours everyday for a few months, but it felt like a lot less.”
The Epstein-Barr virus is a highly contagious infection that is technically incurable as it stays in your body forever, though it can become dormant in the body.
Particularly in adolescents and young adults, it can lead to mononucleosis, which Mahabir developed after his diagnosis.
“I grew up a very active outdoor kid but now, just going for a short walk would end up, on a few occasions, with me blacking out fully.”
After his impressive performances at the U.S. Pro Championships, Mahabir raced at U.S. Junior Nationals in early August, winning the 100 breast (1:00.69) and placing 2nd in the 200 breast (2:12.32).
His condition worsened after that, forcing him to withdraw from the World Junior Championships where he was favored for gold in the 100 and 200 breast.
“The fact that I was feeling 60 percent energy-wise before I went 59 and 2:11 (for the national records) tells me that I would have been way faster had my health been 100 percent,” Mahabir said.
“Seeing a time slower than my personal best win at the world juniors was really disappointing,” he said, with 1:00.70 being the winning time in the 100 and 2:11.84 in the 200 last September in Netanya. “Letting down my team was the worst part, and not getting to hear the national anthem in Israel got to me.”
Singapore Aquatics’ swimming technical director Sonya Porter told The Strait Times health will be the number one priority as they look to the future for Mahabir.
“The plan will be to target 2025 to provide a longer run-up, allowing his health to stabilize without external pressure to get ready on a faster trajectory than he is physically ready to. “The immediate goal is health. Once established, there is no ceiling for possibilities.”
Mahabir maintains hope he’ll be able to compete in time to solidify an Olympic berth in Paris, but said he remains committed to racing at the 2025 World Championships on home soil and ultimately the 2028 LA Olympics regardless.
“No one knows what the future holds. All I can do is look after me, my health, be mindful of my choices that support that, and work on the things I can that will have me ready to take on the training when I can return to it.”
My understanding was that he needed an Olympic A cut this year in order to postpone his military service—is that still the case?
The symptoms sound a lot like the symptoms from Post Acute Covid Syndrome (PACS). Wishing him a full recovery.
There have always been post-viral syndromes (CFS, etc). See for example the book Awakenings by Oliver Sacks about the post-viral “sleeping sickness” that happened after the 2018 flu epidemic.
The post-covid syndromes are just the latest version.
But since covid was a new virus, a really large number of people got them at roughly the same time. So, they’ve gotten a lot more attention since 2020.
Speaking of Epstein-Barr, there was an interesting longitudinal study a couple of years ago that linked Epstein-Barr to multiple sclerosis.
I heard he got 5 jabs😳
Yeah no offense to him and hope he feels better soon, but, like, why can’t the headline just be that he has mono?
Because it got someone like you, who’s a swimswam commenter (that’s an embarrassing title bud) to comment, it works. You’re stuck in the matrix
You really got me there!
yikes, new fear unlocked!
I hope he gets some relief. That is terrible.
Prayers for good health and a speedy recovery!!
Yeah I’m with the comment section, it’s mono…
which to be clear absolutely sucks and isn’t necessarily without major health risk (we generally forget how dangerous these common viruses potentially are generally, the common cold has a surprising high mortality rate for example)
But “incurable virus”, while true, makes it sound like he caught some mystery novel infection. EBV is pretty well known, and I think the headline was phrased for shock value…
Though once again a common infection should not he mistaken for not serious, I hope he recovers well
“I would have been way faster” bro is so arrogant 💀💀
Grant Hackett had this leading up to the Sydney Olympics – almost derailed his career before it even got going. I’m sure Nick will be able to recover from this and come out hungry and ready to throw down!
Grant Hackett was also suffering from collapsed lungs during Athens Olympics.
And then self-induced stillnox during Beijing Olympics.
Basically he never performed at his best during the 3 Olympics he swam in.
His best results were in world Championships.