BUCHANAN STRUGGLING AFTER HORROR CRASH
AUSTRALIAN Olympic cycling star Caroline Buchanan is back on her feet but struggling to walk, talk and even breathe after being left with horrific injuries in a vehicle rollover.
The reigning mountain bike world champion and two-time BMX Olympian was left with two collapsed lungs, a broken sternum and broken nose after the accident with a friend in an off-road vehicle on a private property outside of her home city of Canberra.
The accident happened on Saturday and it is understood that alcohol was not involved.
Buchanan remains in hospital but in a private room after being moved out of intensive care.
She has difficulty speaking due to the collapsed lungs, and video on her Instagram page shows her hooked up to a machine draining blood from her lungs. The 27-year-old also posted graphic photos showing herself in a neck brace and with blood covering her face.
Cycling Australia chief executive Nick Green yesterday said it had been kept fully informed of the accident and Buchanan’s treatment and recovery.
“It was an accident on a property and (she) has sustained some pretty horrific injuries, she will make a full recovery from what we understand,” he said
Buchanan responded from the disappointment of missing the women’s BMX final in Rio in 2016 by winning her seventh world championship later that year, and in August last year won her eighth in the fourcross discipline of mountain biking.