Olympic star's secret battle 'I KNEW SOMETHING WASN'T RIGHT'

Anja shares her journey in the hope of breaking the stigma about endo

- Fleur Guthrie 

Kiwi Olympic skier Anja Barugh was only 11 when she first started to experience crippling abdominal and back pain that would often cause her to run out of the classroom to vomit.

She thought it was a normal adjustment to having periods. But for more than a decade, the athlete secretly battled an insidious enemy within her own body every month, which at times made her question if it was just "all in her head".

After being diagnosed with endometriosis in April 2022 mere months after her debut on the world stage at the Beijing Winter Olympics - Anja is now exclusively sharing her story with the Weekly to inspire other young women with it.

This month the 24-year-old is running the Queenstown Marathon to show it's possible to excel in sports while managing the inflammatory condition (where tissue similar to the lining of the uterus grows on the outside). She's also raising funds for Endometriosis New Zealand.

"I knew something wasn't right from the first few times I had my period," she shares from her home in Wanaka.

"I was always in the sickbay and would have to come home from school - if I even got to school in the first place - and I couldn't keep food down.