A.S. Face 1836: Max Poplawski
My name is Max Poplawski. I am a 22-year-old from the United Kingdom (London).
I have always been a sporty person. For as long as I can remember I have been doing one sport or another. By the age of 9/10 I focused on swimming and rugby. When I was 15 I was captain of my local rugby team, and even competed within the UK Schools National Tournament. My swimming was objectively more successful. I have a few National School medals, and have swam at UK nationals. Basically, what I am trying to say is that I used my body a lot. I trained a lot, I worked hard to get to where I was, and as a result sport was a huge part of my identity. I was always the ‘swimmer dude’ at school with my chlorine bleached hair. That was me.
I was diagnosed at 17. In retrospect, I had symptoms from about 13 onwards. My whole sense of identity came crashing down around me. I wasn’t the ‘swimmer’ anymore. I was the guy sitting at home unable to walk because my sciatica was so bad. The physical parts of AS are well documented; the back pain, the soreness, the tiredness. The mental part, not so much. It is draining, and hard, and tiring, and I was miserable. I don’t say that often, but I was truly miserable and spiteful at the world around me. “Why me?” would be on repeat in my head. Afterall, I did everything right. I exercised, I ate well, I slept as well as I could. What more could I have done?! It took that year of struggle to reset my perceptions of what I was capable of doing.
Now, I am 22. I have got to a point with my medication and sport that I can manage my condition. I am an active climber now. I have climbed in a host of countries and have met some amazing people, and if it were not for my AS I am not sure I would have ever started climbing to begin with. I am also finishing university in the Netherlands, and run a YouTube channel about outdoor sports (and more recently AS in young people). I hope to be able to use the platform to raise awareness about the condition and its role in young people’s lives.
My name is Max Poplawski. I am a 22-year-old from the United Kingdom (London).
I have always been a sporty person. For as long as I can remember I have been doing one sport or another. By the age of 9/10 I focused on swimming and rugby. When I was 15 I was captain of my local rugby team, and even competed within the UK Schools National Tournament. My swimming was objectively more successful. I have a few National School medals, and have swam at UK nationals. Basically, what I am trying to say is that I used my body a lot. I trained a lot, I worked hard to get to where I was, and as a result sport was a huge part of my identity. I was always the ‘swimmer dude’ at school with my chlorine bleached hair. That was me.
I was diagnosed at 17. In retrospect, I had symptoms from about 13 onwards. My whole sense of identity came crashing down around me. I wasn’t the ‘swimmer’ anymore. I was the guy sitting at home unable to walk because my sciatica was so bad. The physical parts of AS are well documented; the back pain, the soreness, the tiredness. The mental part, not so much. It is draining, and hard, and tiring, and I was miserable. I don’t say that often, but I was truly miserable and spiteful at the world around me. “Why me?” would be on repeat in my head. Afterall, I did everything right. I exercised, I ate well, I slept as well as I could. What more could I have done?! It took that year of struggle to reset my perceptions of what I was capable of doing.
Now, I am 22. I have got to a point with my medication and sport that I can manage my condition. I am an active climber now. I have climbed in a host of countries and have met some amazing people, and if it were not for my AS I am not sure I would have ever started climbing to begin with. I am also finishing university in the Netherlands, and run a YouTube channel about outdoor sports (and more recently AS in young people). I hope to be able to use the platform to raise awareness about the condition and its role in young people’s lives.
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