By Nick Creely
There was a point in Levi Maxwell’s professional career where he thought it was all coming to an end.
The 28-year-old Tri-Athlete world champion from Cranbourne was struck down in his prime with a devastating injury at the end of July in 2017.
“I was on a training camp in Thailand, and just came off the bike and unfortunately shattered my elbow, it ended up in about five pieces,” he said.
“I had to get back on a flight straight home, got off the plane, and the next day I was in for surgery; from there, it’s just been rehab since.
“I definitely wanted to race again, but initially, because I’d never done anything like this before, I thought I was done for sure.
“I spoke to a few people who had done similar issues throughout my rehab, and they reassured me that it wasn’t the end, so I just had to stay positive and work to get back and better.”
With pure steel, Maxwell fought back to compete recently, spending months in rehab in a bid to eventually compete in the Ironman Australia event in May 2018 in Port Macquarie, after some stunning Ironman wins all over the world in the last four years.
“It wasn’t intensive (the rehab); it was more little things like trying to get movement into my hand to reduce the inflammation, and to break up the scar tissue to get full range back,” he said.
“It’s been baby steps over a long period of time.
“I let it (training) happen organically – I didn’t think about racing, so I just let the training dictate the races I could compete in.
“The body is fit enough now to deal with the load, it’s just about getting fitter now.”
On 14 January, in Race 3 of the 2XU Triathlon Series 17/18, Maxwell finished second in a sprint, and described his nerves leading into his first race since his injury.
“On a scale of 1-10, my nerves were probably a 20, just because it’s the first one back; being a sprint too, there were expectations on me because it’s not what I specialize in,” he said.
“But I was so nervous; little things like trying to get the warm up times right made me nervous.
The weekend was a sprint, and I train mainly for ironman which is a long course; it’s gruelling because it’s such a struggle when it’s an eight or nine hour race.
“The sprint stuff is a different hurt; it’s so hard to sprint to the max from the start, you’ve got lactic in your mouth and your trying to catch the guys.
“It was meant to be a 600 metre swim, 26.7km bike and 5km run, but because of heavy rain the night before, they had to cancel the swim; so it was 3.5km run, 26.7km bike and 5km run, which probably suited me a bit better given I’m getting back my fitness with swimming.
“I was hoping to sneak in the top five, because those guys are fast and specialised in that distance, so to come second was great.”
For now, it’s just about fighting his way right back to the top, with his training load to increase to as much as 40 hours per week, while also helping out some of the next wave of exciting athletes coming through the south-east area in a role that ingrates him in the community.
“I’m doing a bit of coaching for Casey Cardinia Triathlon squad, so I’ve been working with the squad and to help some of the local athletes who have been lacking a bit of direction and guidance,” he said.
“But I’m building back into Ironman fitness, that’s the ultimate aim.”
