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Slipstream's Friedman plans return and aims for Beijing
Blood clots and doping innuendo darken otherwise impressive pro' debut
Come the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, the entire episode could make ideal fodder for one of NBC’s sappy vignettes about struggle and sacrifice. But right now Mike Friedman is ready to put his ordeal with dangerous blood clots, doping innuendo and an aborted spring racing campaign behind him.
The 24-year-old just wants to race his bike and build on a promising debut season in 2006 where he finished top American at the International Championship in Philadelphia, and won a pair of U.S. national track titles.
“People hear blood and they immediately think drugs,” lamented Friedman, who last October had a blood clot in his leg move into his lungs, forcing a trip to the emergency room. He came out okay, but is now taking blood thinners and can’t return to racing until mid-May at the earliest.
“I know the truth about what happened,” continued Friedman, who was diagnosed with Factor 5 Leiden, a predisposition to form serious blood clots present in five percent of the general population.
“I don’t even take a multi-vitamin,” said Friedman. “Yeah, some of the results I had last year were pretty amazing, and it was my first year as a professional. But I was really focused. It really bothers me [that people jump to that conclusion] but it’s not true. I was tested 12 times by USADA in 2006 and now our team is instituting its own testing.”
Follow the chain events that led the Slipstream-Chipotle rider to the discovery of his ailment, and his explanation seems plausible. For much of the 2006 season he says he suffered from saddle sores, and finally after last year’s track nationals in Los Angeles, he opted to have them surgically removed.
After undergoing the procedure in Colorado Springs, where Friedman lives as a resident athlete at the Olympic training center, he embarked on a marathon drive across country to spend some time with his family back home in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
“I asked the doctor if I could drive home and he was like, ‘Yeah, no problem,’” Friedman said. “I just don’t think he expected that I was going to drive straight through. But I drove 36 straight hours on I-70. I only stopped for fuel and coffee.”
Without knowing it, his drive to see the family was likely the tipping point that caused the formation of a blood clot in his calf, known as deep venous thrombosis. Friedman shook off the initial pains, resting his leg on the dashboard and using his other leg to work his car’s pedals. But several weeks later the pain in his calf migrated to his chest. Friedman thought he was having a heart attack.
“I couldn’t breath. I couldn’t even walk across the room,” he recalled. “My right arm was numb. My back was really sore. It was like I got shot in the chest. I was pretty much on my knees. When I told the woman at the hospital I thought I’d had a heart attack she looked at my like I was on crack. But then they brought me back and it was like triage, a whole line of people waiting to work on me. They took all my tests and found out that I had two clots lodged in my lungs that were restricting blood flow.”
Friedman was fortunate. According to Slipstream team doctor Prentice Steffen, clots like those kill thousands of people each year by blocking blood flow from the heart to the lungs. That results in vascular collapse and victims die from low blood pressure and the inability to breath.
“It just depends on the size of the blood clot,” added Steffen.
Steffen is also quick to point out that this is not a condition which results from EPO use, an idea that’s been furthered by some cycling blog websites.
“People know that EPO thickens blood,” the San Francisco-based emergency room physician explained. “And people have died from that. But the mechanism is different. Those people died because blood clotted in the arteries to their brain or heart. So you die of a stroke or a heart attack. Mike’s clot was in the veins of his leg, and then it got into a lung. It didn’t have anything to do with an elevated hematocrit level. He told me that his hematocrit was 41 when they did his admission tests [at the hospital]. I called his doctor and confirmed that. It’s disappointing for him to lose six months of racing, but in long run it will be meaningless. It’s the same thing as if he broke his wrist.”
Indeed, while Friedman will forever have an increased risk for blood clots because of his genetics, it’s a malady that can be controlled. Doctors prescribed the blood thinner to make sure the original clots dissolved. Once he’s done with that, he’ll need to take extra caution when sitting for extended periods.
“Because Mike is young and healthy, the risk of reoccurrence is low if he does the blood thinners and then is careful about things like long plane trips,” explained Steffen. “He needs to do a lot of stretching and walking around and staying hydrated. He’ll also probably have to take aspirin for long trips because it’s a mild blood thinner. If he does those preventative measures that most people don’t need to do, he’ll be okay in the future.”
That’s good news for Friedman who looks to have a very bright future. He’s already established himself on the short list for inclusion on the 2008 U.S. Olympic track cycling team, and he plans to do more than just show up in China.
“I’m 95 percent sure that I’m going to the Olympics,” said the 5-foot-9, 176-pound rider who is aiming to contest both the Madison and individual pursuit. “I know if I go I have the ability to win. Maybe 2012 will be better for me because I’ll have more experience, but I already have faith in myself.”
Freidman has so much faith that he’s been eschewing his doctor’s advice, and was back on the bike in mid-January, training with his team in Southern California. He says he can train no problem. It’s crashing that could cause complications.
“In medicine we talk about compressible areas of bleeding,” said Steffen. “If Mike crashes and gets road rash it’s going to bleed like crazy, but you can put pressure on it and wrap it. But if he has even the mildest injury to his liver, spleen or brain, the blood could flow freely and there would be no way to put pressure on it to stop the bleeding. We told him not to train outdoors, but he’s ignoring that and that bothers me. We’re going to have to talk more about that. If he were my kid I wouldn’t let him do that. He can run, swim or be on the trainer, but being out on the road is dangerous. You can’t control what the guy behind the SUV is going to do.”
Of course that’s a tough sell to a talented young rider entering his prime, who was originally tabbed by management as the man most likely to lead the team if it scores a coveted spot in April’s Paris-Roubaix.
“It’s really hard to know that I am going to miss some big races,” said Friedman. “But in the long run it could be beneficial. I still have a chance to get to the Olympics.”
And if he does make it to Beijing, it’s a safe bet that the “up-close-and personal” gang at NBC will be waiting with TV cameras at the ready.
