RSS Feed
Print Story
E-mail Story
Driven to ride
Nicole Madsen, 15, of Taft is determined to continue her motocross success despite having diabetes
| Monday, Nov 19 2007 11:15 PM
Last Updated: Monday, Nov 19 2007 11:22 PM
Nicole Madsen is driven by the realization that, somewhere out there, someone is faster on a motocross bike. It's driven her rise in the sport since she started competing only about four years ago.
BAKERSFIELD.COM HOT TOPICS:
Loading Stories
Advertisement
It helped her win the American Motocross Association Southern California Championship Motocross Series women's novice division in 2006. It helped her win the 2007 AMA Southern California Championship Motocross Series in the 250F beginners class and the 2007 national title in the World Off Road Championship Series in the women's "B" class.
That realization that someone out there is faster has driven the 15-year-old from Taft to victory after victory. It still drives her, because there's still someone out there faster.
"It's the challenge, trying to be consistent all the time," Madsen said. "There's always someone better out there. You try to train yourself and push yourself to the limit to beat that person. Someone's going to be faster than me, but I want to beat that person."
That she was diagnosed at age 12 with type I diabetes is considered an inconvenience.
"I just do like I always do, just check my blood," Madsen said. "I do everything that I normally do."
There is no cure for type I diabetes. Research is ongoing, but it's likely that for the rest of her life Madsen will have to monitor her insulin level and take regular injections of replacement insulin to prevent complications that can include heart disease, blindness, nerve damage and kidney damage, according to the American Diabetes Association.
The complications are serious, and the monitoring and insulin injections (six to eight times each day) can be "kind of a pain," Madsen said. But as competitive as she is, she never considered ending her incipient motocross racing career when she was diagnosed.
She got her start on a motorcycle when she was 7, but it was nothing serious. Her father, Greg Madsen, a police officer in Taft, enjoyed the sport recreationally and encouraged Nicole to ride.
But it was Darin Layton, of Honolulu Hills Raceway in Taft, who really got her started. Layton's daughter, Kira, and Nicole were friends and Layton, a motocross racer himself, was keen to get his daughter interested in the sport.
Nicole was encouraged to join in riding with Kira.
"I noticed Nicole kept showing interest," Layton said. "She really got into it. She started asking about how to be better because she was raw. She just started plugging away."
The sport can be dangerous -- Nicole broke a collarbone in 2006, her only serious injury -- and that she has diabetes adds concern from her parents. But they are determined to allow Nicole to have a normal childhood.
"It's dangerous for anyone," Greg said. "She's very aggressive, but she doesn't take chances. ... We give her the best safety equipment we can get and she knows what she's doing on the track."
Added her mother Valerie: "If she wants to do it, I'm 100 percent behind her. ... She's an athlete anyway. She has that competitiveness about her and it needs an outlet."
Through her journey, Nicole has had to be a little more wary along the way. She said it's easy for her to become so focused upon the racing that she sometimes forgets about the testing and the injections.
There are effects if her insulin level dips too low, all the more magnified by her sport. She might feel weaker than usual, not a good thing for someone trying to wrestle a bike that weighs more than 200 pounds around a track.
"I've actually ridden and I get a little weak and feel that I know I'm low, so I have to come off the track earlier than I should," Nicole said. "If it's low, I'll get kind of weak. Basically, we act like we're kind of intoxicated. So it can affect the ride."
It doesn't affect the desire, however. She trains strenuously -- riding, running, lifting weights -- and competes year-round, with mom and dad sometimes driving her 16 hours or more to a racing venue.
Her plan for the future includes college; her parents insist that her education not be discarded on the side of the track during the journey to a professional career, which is what Nicole hopes for the future. She'll continue to race as an amateur, and see what her options are in the future.
Diabetes may remain that inconvenience, but she's determined to not let it get her off track. There's still someone out there faster.
"I just don't let it take control of me, and I think of the positives instead of the negatives," Nicole said. "I control it; it doesn't control me."