Pursuit of gold often ends with injuries

Statistically, an athlete is much, much, more likely to bring an injury home from the Olympic Games, than a medal.

Testing the limits is what Olympic athletes do – eternal glory is on the line after all – but pushing too hard has consequences for body and soul.

A study by Lars Engebretsen of the University of Oslo in Norway estimated about one in 10 athletes would suffer an injury at Rio.

At the 2012 London Olympics the International Olympic Committee (IOC) calculated at least 11 percent of athletes suffered an injury.

Of those hurt, studies found three-quarters of injuries were suffered during competition, and a quarter during training.

And so it proved in Rio, let’s recap some of this year’s most notable:

If there was a medal for getting hurt the gold would go to French gymnast Samir Ait Said who shattered his left tibia and fibula after failing to land a double pike on the vault.

The image of Said rolling around the floor clutching his leg hanging loosely on a awful angle made headlines around the world.

After Said was taken away on a stretcher by medical staff (who later dropped him), the crowd heard Germany’s Andreas Toba cry out when he tore a ligament in his knee during a floor routine.

Armenian weightlifter Andranik Karapetyan dislocated his left elbow after failing to execute his 195kg clean-and-jerk during the men’s 77kg final.

Dutch cyclist Annemiek van Vleuten crashed leading the road race, and fractured her spine and copped major concussion. She was just 10 kilometres from Olympic gold.

New Zealand sevens player Sonny Bill Williams ended his season when his achilles tendon partially ruptured.

American runner Abbey D’agostino fell during the women’s 5000m heats, injuring her right anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and meniscus, and straining her medial collateral ligament (MCL).

When she tried to carry on her knee buckled, bringing her back to the ground. Kiwi Nikki Hamblin helped her keep going.

New Zealand psychologist Sara Chatwin has worked with professional athletes for 15 years.

She said consistency and routine were key to strong athletic performance, but the Olympics throws all of that into disarray.

‘‘There’s a certain amount of stress,’’ Chatwin said.

‘‘Most athletes have come from offshore, they’re in a different environment and new environment and foreign environment.

‘‘They don’t have their full team around them. For me it’s absolutely routine that Olympians performing at Olympic level get injuries because of the physical and mental stress they are under.’’

During training everything is automatic and movements just take over, but when it comes down to ‘the’ moment the mind can play tricks even on the fittest of the fit. Chatwin said there is a level of stress during competition athletes can’t prepare for, and this is exactly when injuries occur.