As the ASU women’s cross country team prepares to chase a national title, the team needs leaders.

Some leaders are vocal. Others lead by performance.

Some leaders, however, lead by being a living example of perseverance and toughness.

Junior Camille Olson is this type of leader.

Olson has not taken the traditional path of a college athlete. Born in New York City, Olson moved at the age of 1 to London.

Olson became a soccer star and played for the feeder team of the Queens Park Rangers Football Club at the tender age of 8. London would be her home until freshman year in high school, when she moved to Arizona and enrolled in Sandra Day O’Conner High School in Phoenix.

Right when school started, Olson started losing weight at an alarming rate. So in addition to trying to adjust to a new country, Olson now had serious health problems.

As the year went on, she began to deteriorate. In January, she was hospitalized.

“I was severely underweight, and I was always in a lot of pain,” Olson said. “I was unable to walk, or play soccer or anything. Eventually, they put me in the hospital for 10 days.”

Olson was so thin that the doctors couldn’t perform some of the tests they needed to do for fear of damaging her permanently.

“One of the tests they needed to do, but weren’t able to do because I was so thin, was a colonoscopy and an endoscopy,” Olson said. “They weren’t able to do them because they were afraid they were going to perforate something.”

In order for her to gain weight, the doctors inserted a gastric feeding tube. Olson used the feeding tube for five months as her only source of food.

After she had gained enough weight, the doctors conducted their tests and had an idea.

They put Olson on a gluten-free diet to see if it helped, and she immediately felt an improvement.

“I started feeling better and I had more energy,” Olson said. “I wasn’t getting any stomach pains from eating. It was nice to finally eat again.
I started gaining weight, and the tests showed I had the precursor for Celiac Disease.”

Celiac Disease is a genetic disorder in which the body does not properly break down gliadin, a gluten protein found in wheat.

While the severity ranges from person to person, it was clear that Olson could have died from how much weight she was losing as a result of the disease.

Interestingly, it was the disease and the stresses that had come with it that led someone to suggest that Olson try running.

“When I was getting really sick, my health teacher was talking to me about running and the fact that in running, a lot of the time people find a great outlet,” Olson said. “When you’re stressed or not feeling well, running is really good for you, and so my sophomore year I joined the cross-country team.”

Olson was at a disadvantage on the team at first. Most of the runners ran five or six times a week, but Olson was limited to running three or four times a week due to the recovery process.

However, she quickly picked it up, and by her junior year in high school, she finished third in the state in cross country.

She bettered that by finishing second her senior year, and now she has become a leader for the ASU cross-country team.

“They all really appreciate her background and the fact that she’s able to compete at such a high level now,” ASU coach Louie Quintana said.

“She doesn’t take it for granted. I think she brings that attitude to practice — that she doesn’t take anything for granted. She knows at any given moment that this can all be taken away. I think the women really appreciate that, and she brings a certain level of purpose to practice every day.”

Olson has to focus particularly hard on what she eats, especially in the world of cross country where carbohydrate loading and all-you-can-eat pasta nights are frequent.

“I just have to be careful that I’m eating the right kind of carbs — the ones that are gluten free like rice pasta and corn pasta and not any wheat, “ Olson said. “My body doesn’t absorb things as well as other people, so I take a lot of extra nutrients like iron, calcium and magnesium to help supplement the absorption. I just have to make sure I stay on top of things and stay focused on my health as well as my running.”

Quintana has mentioned Olson as being one of his top runners throughout the offseason, and she has made it a personal goal to be an All-American.

She did not race much during her sophomore year due to injury, but she is back and ready to make an impact for the Sun Devils.

From near-death to All-American is her goal, and what a story it would be.

Reach the reporter at kyle.glaser@asu.edu.