Born: December 30, 1975, Height: 195 cm, Weight: 126 kg
Conny's greatest shotput achievements was being the 22-year-old's European Champion and 7th place in the 2001 World Championships. He was also the Finnish Shotput Champion from 2001 and 2002.
Conny believes that he has had ulcerative colitis for years, but he always thought he just had a sensitive stomach and frequent bathroom visits became routine. In the summer 2003 he was hospitalized due to upper abdominal pain. He was diagnosed with schlerosing cholangitis and at the same time, it was found that he also had ulcerative colitis. He was prescribed cortisone for 4 months, after which he had to start taking immunosuppressants. The medication started to take effect quickly, and at the moment, Conny feels relatively healthy. He has not had symptoms outside of the bowel.
Conny says that the worst thing during his athletic career was the 4-month cortisone treatment, because it took away all of his strentgh and he had no energy left. Over a year after quitting cortisone, Conny still felt that he was not as fit as before. Doctors have told him that it should be possible to be a professional athlete with IBD, and he is willing to keep fighting.
Conny says that the illness has not affected his life very much. Before the diagnosis, he was nervous about the test results, but coped well with the diagnosis. He hopes to stay healthy with the help of medication. However, Conny says that after becoming sick he has started to think about sports in a different way. It is important to him, but there are other things to life as well.
Conny has noticed that he fatigues quicker because of the illness, but he doesn't believe that exercise makes the illness worse in any way. He says that if he doesn't exercise enough, he gets anxious. He can take it easy from time to time, but staying still for too long makes him want to exercise. Conny feels that although it helps to have a well-trained body, if the disease flares up, it flares up no matter what. He says, however, that it is probably easier to get through the hard times if you are fit. Conny has this message to all IBD sufferers:
"You should always exercise if you feel up for it, but you need to remember that when you are sick, you have to rest enough. If you feel you don't have enough energy to go for a jog, don't go, but you have to learn to judge whether staying at home is the best thing to do. Do you really not have the energy or are you just lazy? Usually a little bit of exercise cheers you up."
For more information, go to Conny's website.
