Gymnastics can be brutal on the human body. You don’t have to look any further than this year’s Olympics, where a French gymnast broke his leg, although be forewarned before you look at it because it is brutal.
It’s particularly tough for a gymnast when they injure themselves at the Olympics, because it is far and away their biggest competition. Every four years, they get this huge stage to compete on, and to have it taken away because of an injury must be heartbreaking. That’s why sometimes you will find a gymnast toughing it out after they pick up a knock. However, there’s “walking it off,” and then there’s competing in the pommel horse with a torn ACL.
Andreas Toba, a 25-year-old gymnast from Germany, unfortunately suffered a torn ACL trying to quality for the men’s floor event. Needless to say, he was deeply distressed by this turn of events and began crying. That wasn’t the end of Toba’s day, though. Toba needed to compete in the pommel horse so that Germany could qualify for the next round. He got up on the horse, nailed his routine even though his knee was shredded, and Germany qualified.
By this point, one hopes that we as a society have moved past the days of making fun of gymnasts for not being tough or something equally inaccurate. However, if anybody is still clinging to those archaic ideas, Toba’s gutsy performance put them to rest. This is an incredible example of perseverance the likes of which you rarely see in sports.
(Via For the Win)
