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Gymnast Avoids Nasty Injury After Falling During Routine

Gymnast Avoids Nasty Injury After Falling During Routine

The young athlete was competing in an event in Nashville when she fluffed her landing

Dominic Smithers

Dominic Smithers

Gymnastics isn't for the faint-hearted. It's an incredibly difficult sport that takes years of dedication to master; one false step and it could be the difference between perfection and snapping your leg in half.

Fortunately for one young athlete, a coach was on hand to save her after she miscalculated a landing during an event in Nashville, Tennessee.

Shocking footage, taken by the girl's mum, has been shared online, showing just how close she came to having a nasty accident.

In the clip, the girl can be seen running towards the spring board, jumping into a handspring before flipping through the air. But as she comes down to land, her left leg slides off the landing mat, causing her to fall.

Luckily, the quick-thinking coach rushes over and catches her mid-air. Phew.

The video, which can be viewed above, was posted on social media with the caption: "When you compete vault you have two tries at it - the judges takes the best one and that will be your score.

"This was my daughter's first run on vault and when jumping back on her back handspring she went sideways and could've badly hurt herself.

"But her coach saw that she wasn't aligned and ran in to catch her before she hit the ground."

I guess this is a reminder that top level sport is not as easy as it sometimes looks.

And sadly, however, an Auburn University gymnast in the United States wasn't so lucky and had to be carried from the floor on a stretcher after breaking both her legs attempting an acrobatic move.

Another young gymnast wasn't so lucky.
YouTube

Auburn University's Samantha Cerio suffered the horrific injuries during the Baton Rouge Regional in April 2019, an event on the National Collegiate Athletic Association calendar.

Cerio was attempting her first go at a handspring double front flip with a blind landing - one for the gymnastics experts out there - but came up just short and sent both her legs bending backwards unnaturally.

Reports suggested she dislocated both knees and suffered multiple ligament tears. Painful stuff, and that's just watching it.

Her coach, Jeff Graba, said afterwards: "It was pretty tough to watch. She's a trooper. The last thing she said was, 'Go help the girls.' The girls rallied around her. They're doing this for her right now."

Featured Image Credit: ViralHog

Topics: US News