Mohave Today

British skeleton racer Lizzy Yarnold nearly missed out on winning a gold medal at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, partly because of her struggles with inner ear problems.

Yarnold struggled to breathe in the harsh cold of PyeongChang and said her condition affected her performance. According to a report in The Sun, breathing became difficult in a colder climate during competition, and she began experiencing vertigo and sinus headaches, possibly caused by an inner ear infection.

"Eustachian tube dysfunction is what happens when the eustachian tube that connects the back of the throat to the middle ear space doesn't work properly," Dr. Monty Trimble of Dallas Breathe Free Sinus & Allergy Centers told Mohave Today.

A disorder that impacts the inner ear, also known as "labrynthitis," is caused by inflammation of portion of the inner ear known called the labyrinth. The cause is generally a bacterial or viral infection, according to NHS (National Health Service) Inform.

In Yarnold’s case, once she arrived at the Olympics, she developed a chest infection, and it intensified to the point that she said she had difficulty speaking and breathing, according to her Wikipedia page. She tried home remedies to ease the symptoms, and after falling to third place in the competition, Yarnold was able to recover to the point that she won the gold medal. Yarnold is the most successful British Winter Olympian and the most successful Olympic skeleton athlete of all time from any country.

According to Mayo Clinic, most infections like Yarnold’s clear up within 10 days and are often caused by a cold. Doctors advise seeing a specialist if symptoms worsen, don’t clear up within a few weeks, or if you have a history of chronic sinusitis and inflammation of the sinuses.