Despite Her Early Exit From The Mount Kilimanjaro Climb, Martina Navratilova
Is Happy About The Funds Raised
The former number one tennis player Martina Navratilova was discharged from the hospital in Kenya on Sunday; three days after illness forced her to give up on climbing Africa’s highest mountain, Mount Kilimanjaro.
The 54-year-old was brought to tears when she got to know that she would not be able to reach the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro after her lungs filled with water on day four of the climb.
"I wrote in my diary every day the best that I could and when I got to camp that Thursday afternoon I wrote; I have never been so utterly exhausted. Everything is taking a monumental effort, going to the bathroom, getting dressed,
and setting up the tent. Today was mostly sled or downhill, but totally straight up from the get go, and from camp. And that is when I stopped writing because I started crying because I was so disappointed. At that point I knew there was no way that I would
make it to the top,” said Navratilova during her interview.
Despite her disappointment of not making it to the summit, the eighteen time Grand Slam singles winner was delighted over the fact that over $60,000 had been raised for the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation. The foundation supports
about eighty projects around the world that make use of sports to handle some of the world’s most pressing social problems.
The left handed Martina, who was leading a line up of twenty seven people, had reached 4,500 meters during the day before she was taken down by the porters. The Florida resident was immediately shifted to the Kilimanjaro Christian
Medical Centre for a check up and then flown to Nairobi Hospital for further tests that later diagnosed her with high altitude pulmonary oedema.
She had felt problems during the opening three days of the ascent after gastrointestinal issues struck at the beginning of the climb; however Martina was suggested to give up by the doctors on the fourth day after her breath had
became so weak that she found it extremely hard to even go to the bathroom from her tent.
“I just thought I was not feeling well because of the gastrointestinal problem which I think that was all it was at that moment, but because of that my system was a little weakened and the doctor thought that it might have contributed
to the pulmonary oedema. When you climb Kilimanjaro you walk very slow—like shuffling like old folks do—but you have to go slow to acclimatize and save the energy for getting to the top. But even as slow as we were going I still had to stop…and I knew something
was not right. I did not feel badly I just could not breathe or get a full breath of air. I kept thinking, ‘this is a lot worse than it should be,’” she said.
While commenting on her overall journey up the Tanzanian mountain, Martina described it as one of the toughest tasks she has ever had to do in her whole life. She said that the cold conditions along with the feeling of no going
back home and relaxing for a while, mad it even harder.
The Czech American star may not have hit the tennis ball from the top of Mount Kilimanjar; but that does not make her journey a failure. As Martina helped raise thousands of dollars for a great charitable cause. Moreover, she
has also brought worldwide awareness to a worthy project.
The owner of 167 single career titles joked that a climb up Mount Everest is perhaps not any more on her bucket list, however Martina assured that she will keep on spreading knowledge regarding the profile of deserving causes.
Tags: