Canadian tennis star Gabriela Dabrowski offered a surprising outlook on her cancer battle as she nears the one-year anniversary of her diagnosis.
Dabrowski won a Bronze medal at the Olympics in Paris last summer just months after being diagnosed with breast cancer.
The 32-year-old received the life-changing news last April but chose to keep her diagnosis a secret from the rest of the world until on New Year’s Eve when she penned an emotional statement on Instagram.
Having first found a lump in the spring of 2023, which she was told was nothing to worry about, she had a scan a year later and was informed she had cancer.
‘I don’t regret what the doctor told me then [in 2023], because I’m really happy with how my year turned out, what I learned, what I experienced,’ she told Olympics.com as she spoke out on her journey last week. ‘It’s an acknowledgment that cancer is something really messed up and it can be very scary.’
Unbeknownst to her fans, Dabrowski initially delayed treatment to continue competing on the court before taking unannounced time away from the tour for surgery.
Olympic bronze medalist Gabriela Dabrowski has opened up on her shock cancer diagnosis
The tennis star initially kept the diagnosis secret before revealing on Instagram in December
Unbeknownst to her fans, Dabrowski continued to play last year throughout treatment
Dabrowski did not play a match in April and May but returned in June, winning her first tournament back with partner Erin Routliffe in Nottingham.
She competed at Wimbledon where she and the New Zealander finished as runners-up, while the pair ended the season by winning the WTA Finals, leaving Dabrowski ranked third in the world.
In Paris in August, Dabrowski walked away from the Olympic Games with a bronze medal, having partnered fellow Canadian and men’s singles world No 19 Felix Auger-Aliassime in the mixed doubles.
And, reflecting on the past year, Dabrowski said that her diagnosis has changed her outlook on life, surprisingly, for the better.
‘Cancer had to happen to me; something had to shake me, and cancer did that,’ she told Olympics.com.
‘It shook me. It’s not to say that I wasn’t grateful for my life before, or the people in it, or the experiences in life that I lead. But it was something bigger, because it really shook me to my core of what it meant to be alive, what it meant to play a sport for a living.’
In her bombshell post in December, Dabrowski revealed that she underwent two surgeries on the cancer at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, and just weeks before playing at Wimbledon couldn’t lift her left arm.
In the Instagram post, she revealed that her coach Patrick was ‘tossing the ball for me on my serve’.
Dabrowski opened up on the treatment she has been receiving for her cancer
Dabrowski (right) plays a shot during the Wimbledon final, in the middle of her cancer battle
Incredibly, she went on to compete in Nottingham, Wimbledon and at the Olympics, winning the former, reaching the final at SW19 and then getting bronze in Paris.
From there, she went on to have radiation treatment and endocrine therapy, before incredibly going on to win the WTA Finals and end the year as No. 3 in the world.
‘It all seems surreal,’ she wrote. ‘Why am I sharing my story now? For a long time I wasn’t ready to expose myself to the possible attention and questions I’d have gotten before.
‘I wanted to figure everything out and handle things privately with only those closest to me in the loop.
‘There were so many unknowns and so much learning and research to be done. Currently I’m in a place where I have a better grasp of my treatment, side effects and how to manage them.’
She went on to explain: ‘My intentions in sharing some of my experience are to emphasise the quality of life one can maintain when cancer is detected early, when you have access to doctors and other health care practitioners who are highly skilled and dedicated to their craft, when you take care of your mental, physical and spiritual wellbeing, and when you surround yourself with people who truly have your back (and your front).’
In Paris in August, Dabrowski walked away from the Olympic Games with a bronze medal
She partnered men’s singles world No 19 Felix Auger-Aliassime in the mixed doubles
Dabrowski also revealed that ‘losing everything I’d worked for my entire life was a real possibility’.
The tennis star also paid tribute to her doubles partner Routliffe, who she reached the semifinals of the Australian Open with in January.
Revealing her gratitude for ‘what I had’, she thanked her ‘loving parents and friends, amazing coaches, a doubles partner who stuck by me, a real team, and access to health care experts’.
In conclusion, she wrote: ‘To cancer I say f*** you, but also, thank you.’
