Paris 2024 Olympic gold medal favourite Matt Wearn's battle ahead of ILCA 7 world titles

Matt Wearn didn’t get Covid badly but long Covid saw him struggle to eat, walk or do even the most basic tasks. It also stopped the Olympic champion sailing.

Matt Wearn winning his first world title last year in The Hague. Picture: Supplied/Australian Sailing

Matt Wearn didn’t get Covid badly, but long Covid saw him struggle to eat, walk or do even the most basic tasks. It also stopped the Olympic champion doing what he loves best and does best - sailing.

For the Tokyo Olympic hero even getting out of bed was a struggle

For an unforgettable four months after contracting Covid and a bout of gastro back-to-back in 2022, Wearn lived a very different life.

“It put me out for a long time. It was a real struggle,’’ Wearn said ahead of his defence of the ILCA 7 world crown in Adelaide this week.

“The Covid was not that bad really. I didn’t really show many symptoms at all.

“Then it became long Covid and I think that eventually turned into chronic fatigue.’’

Matt Wearn won his first world title after becoming the Olympic champion in Tokyo in 2021. Picture: Sailing Energy/World Sailing

Wearn struggled with his new reality of being unwell and tired constantly, unable to sail and watching his body shrink before his eyes.

“I would feel good for a week then I would just hit rock bottom again. I was pretty low. I really struggled,’’ he said.

“I couldn’t leave home some days from a lack of energy.

“I also lost a lot of body weight and muscle mass.’’

Matt Wearn is now back on track to defend his Olympic gold medal at the Paris Olympics. Picture: Getty

In all, an extraordinary 10 kilos was stripped from his already lean frame.

“I went down to the mid 70s and along with the weight loss was the loss of energy and appetite.

“I lost almost all my strength.

“About the only thing I could do was low intensity on the bike.’’

At the worst of it, Wearn said he just stayed in bed all day or lay quietly on the couch at home.

“The mental side was big. It wasn’t depression but I struggled to pick myself up and get up and do stuff,’’ said Wearn, the only medal winning sailor from the Tokyo Olympics returning to race at the Paris Games and one of our leading contenders across all sports to win gold.

A lean and mean Wearn on route to his first world championships win. Picture: Sailing Energy/World Sailing.

“There was a big turning point when I started to get an understanding of what it was and that we had been setting to unrealistic targets,’’ he said.

“I couldn’t get any better and had started to push too much.

“I had to completely stop and relax and that’s when things finally got better.”

Wearn, who works under coach Rafa Trujillo, said he used hydrogen therapy, ice baths and cryotherapy to help boost the endorphins and hormones in his blood.

Matt Wearn after winning the Laser Olympic gold at Enoshima in August 2021. Picture: Phil Walter/Getty Images

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“They were really low, I also had really low cortisol levels from the stress and low testosterone,’’ he said.

“I had to rest. I literally was on the couch doing nothing for two months.

“Laying on the couch and eating and sleeping … that was all I could do.’’

Wearn, who has been training full tilt to defend his world crown, said he is now recovered from his illness but has been left with severe sinus issues and “is living off the nose sprays’’.

Ironically, at the end of the worst period of his life, Wearn, now 28, is perhaps in the best form of his career.

He last year won his first world title, a second is beckoning in Adelaide and he also has the confidence of winning the Paris Olympic Test event.

“There is a silver lining. I guess this was the only thing that could stop me and I’ve come back fitter and stronger because of a new training regimen that we had to work out,’’ he said.

“It’s very much more about quality than quantity now.’

Australian Luke Elliott at the last world championships in The Hague. Picture: Supplied/ Australian Sailing

Born in Western Australia and training for most for the summer in Sydney, Wearn also spends big chunks of the yare racing and training in Europe alongside his wife, top Belgium sailor Emma Plasschaert who recently finished third at the women['s ILCA 6 world championships.

Other elite Australians competing in Adelaide include Luke Elliott, fifth at the recent nationals won by Wearn, Ethan McAullay, 6th at the last European championships, Finn Alexander, 10th at 2023 European championships, and Zac Littlewood, 5th at the 2021 Worlds.

Also racing are Australians Michael Compton, Stefan Elliott-Shircore, Sam King, Lawson McAullay and Will Sargent.

Wearn's major contenders for the ILCA 7 crown, previously knows as the Laser, are 2021 world champion Tom Saunders from New Zealand, 2020 titleholder Philipp Buhl from Germany and 2023 runner-up Micky Beckett from Great Britain.

More from sailing writer AMANDA LULHAM HERE