Ewers will not race professionally in 2026, she made clear Instagram. The American took a months-long break last year to physically recover from ‘RED-S’, or Relative Energy Deficiency in Sports. She hoped to perform strongly again this season, but her best result was 23rd place in a Czech stage race. Although she also finished the Giro Donne, albeit quite anonymously as 87th in the final classification. While three years ago she was still in the top 10 in one stage race after another.
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So now there will be a complete stop. “This is not the news I wanted to share. A few weeks ago I got my blood test results, which showed that my hormone levels are still virtually zero. Trying to perform, which I physically couldn’t do until my hormones recovered or stabilized, and in the meantime, trying to recover, which I couldn’t do until I stopped trying to perform at top level, was like hitting my head against the wall.”
Dilemma
The climber tried to tackle the problem through a dietician, who presented her with a heartbreaking choice: continue with what she has always done or focus on a full recovery and only then on delivering top sporting performances.
“I pushed myself into a hole by abusing my body for too long,” said Ewers. “It needs a complete reset before it can perform optimally. I’m tired of being mediocre. And besides, I want to start cycling, running, etc. when I’m older. My goal is to eventually come back and show the world what I’m capable of, with a functional body.”
Tormentor
Ewers wrote an even more extensive version via Substack. In it she went into more detail about her problems. “I haven’t had a period since 2014. My bones are weak. My gastrointestinal function is poor,” it sounds. “The competition did not end with the race itself. It continued in the kitchen and at the dining table. Everyone saw a disciplined athlete. A thin and slender athlete. A serious and dedicated athlete. But no one saw that she was slowly declining.”
“The 2023 season started slowly, but my bulimia addiction (alternating excessive binges with methods to get rid of the calories eaten, ed.) persisted.” And in the end it went wrong. “With about 30 kilometers to go in stage 6 of the Tour de France Femmes, the day before the mountain stage of the Tourmalet, I was thrown into a ditch and broke my collarbone. I lay there in a panic, afraid that no one would find me. Afraid that I would lose time. Once I was pulled out of the ditch and checked, I ended the ride sobbing. I knew something was wrong and I didn’t want it to be true.”
“A few hours later I was sitting there in a sling, with a train ticket to return home,” Ewers continues. “I was devastated that I wouldn’t be able to show what I could do at the Tourmalet, but I was even more worried that I wouldn’t be able to train. My addiction worsened. Once I could get on the exercise bike, I did everything I could. I went longer than planned every day. I had to burn the highest number of calories possible. The tormentor consumed me.”
‘My body gave out’
In the summer of 2023, the American said she reached rock bottom when she went so deep during a training ride that her kidneys failed and she could not move for a while. “My body was breaking down and I almost died fighting it. I had lost so much sweat and electrolytes that I could have easily died if I had not been brought in.”
“I haven’t had an episode since that day. I tell myself I never wanted to fall into a hole like that again. Right now my body is in a recovery phase and there is no way it will prioritize performance and training. It’s not safe enough to perform. For now, I’m not doing much exercise. I’m in the process of ‘recovering body weight’ as my dietitian told me. None of this is pleasant. I don’t know who I am if I’m not an athlete But I’m sure I won’t let that tormentor get the upper hand again,” said an ever combative Ewers.
Ewers has two professional victories to her name, both of which she achieved before the problems really arose in 2022. That year she also finished ninth in the final classification of the Tour de France Femmes, which was won by Annemiek van Vleuten.