Improve You

On 1 January 2025, Eli Iserbyt won the GP Sven Nys in Baal. His 54th elite cyclo-cross victory. He was 27, in the prime of his career, and nobody watching that day could have told you he had six weeks of racing left in him.Six weeks later he stopped his season because of pain in his left leg. Everyone, including the doctors, thought it was a muscle problem. It wasn't. An artery in his pelvis had narrowed so much his leg wasn't getting blood during efforts. Four surgeries. Fifteen hours on the operating table. One attempted comeback. Another relapse.On 8 January 2026, multiple doctors told him he had to stop. Not just stop competing. Stop riding. The sport he had spent his entire life inside of. He's 28.This conversation is recorded three months after that announcement. It is not a comeback story, he is not coming back. It is not a greatest-hits retrospective, he still can't watch his old races. It's something harder than either of those: a conversation with someone standing at the junction between real grief and real possibility, with the road behind him closed.Brent sits down with Eli to talk about what happens when your body ends a career your mind didn't agree to end. The misdiagnosis. The four surgeries. The moment the right specialist finally said "it's not your muscle, it's your artery." What it's like to watch your sport from the analyst's chair when you can't ride home afterwards. And the question that sits underneath the whole episode: could better data, earlier, have changed any of this, for him, or for the next Eli?Brent knows this territory more than most. He nearly died from misdiagnosed Crohn's. Eli lost his career to a condition misdiagnosed as a muscle problem. Same gap. Same cost.What you'll hear:The first time the pain hit, and why everyone thought it was nothingWhy "Piriformis syndrome" became the diagnosis that cost him a yearInside four surgeries and one failed comebackWhat his data was actually showing before anyone knew what to look forRacing a generation against Mathieu and Wout, and what that really felt likeWho you are when the training plan you've had every day for 15 years disappearsWhat he'd say to the version of himself who won in Baal on January 1stWhether professional sport is actually health, or just looks like itThis is Optimize You, a Superhlth podcast.Making health personal.Get started with your health journey for free here.

Most people assume professional athletes are the healthiest people on the planet. They're not. Justine Vanhaevermaet has 77 international caps for the Belgian Red Flames, plays for Crystal Palace Women in England, and holds a Master's degree in physiotherapy. For 17 years she has used her body as her tool, her income, and her identity. While knowing better than almost anyone what that actually costs. She treated patients during the day. Drove to training in Brussels every evening. Ate dinner in the car. And right before the very first Red Flames European Championship in 2017, her knee gave out. ACL. Gone. She fought her way back. And scored at both Euro 2022 and Euro 2025. In this episode, Justine opens up about what elite sport really does to your body and your mind when no one is watching. You'll learn: Why looking healthy and being healthy are two completely different things What it's like to be the physio and the patient at the same time How she rebuilt mentally after her ACL tear, and what most people get wrong about recovery What health data revealed about her body that 17 years of professional training couldn't Why generic medical advice consistently fails female athletes The one thing she would tell her ten-year-old self about health Optimize You is powered by Superhlth. Europe's first personal health super app. Discover what your data says about you → superhlth.com   Get started for free with our app on: https://linktr.ee/superhlth