I damaged my hamstring at the London Olympics and had to stop training for five months. At times, I thought my career was over.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
After 13 years of hard landings in gymnastics, one ski run had delivered the biggest injury of my career.
I got injured at the Olympic Trials in 2000. I could not jump. I could not walk on my leg properly. I couldn't bend my knee. I couldn't straighten it.
I could have been a professional footballer and trialled with Blackburn Rovers. But I snapped my cruciate ligaments, an injury that has dogged me ever since.
I was a semi-professional gymnast as a child. I did rhythmic gymnastics, but I sustained an injury and strained all the muscles in my spine.
I was a judo athlete, while taking modeling as my side job, before I eventually quit my professional sports career over a knee injury.
I've got no hamstring in the middle. I'm basically running on two hamstrings on my right leg and three on the other. That injury has probably changed my whole career. I've been compromised from the age of 19.
After I suffered a labral tear in my hip while playing soccer, I realized that many sports-related injuries can be prevented and I dedicated myself to helping young athletes learn more about injury prevention.
The worst injury I ever had was a stress fracture from running.
When I chose athletics, I knew I wanted to be Olympic champion, and now I have done it in London.
My body had given up on me at one point. And as many injuries as I've had over the years, I truly believed that my body needed to rest and not be on the grind like it's been for the last 15 years.
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