Injuries foil Olympic dreams nd for world’s top athletes
‘Hurt and devastated’ to miss event
• Some athletes injured ankles and knees. Some didn’t want to compete on clay courts. One broke her leg during a freak accident in a garden.
All will miss the Summer Olympics in Paris, along with dozens of other elite athletes who will be absent for a variety of reasons.
“Unfortunately, I won’t be having the fairy-tale ending I was hoping for,” said American runner Matthew Centrowitz, a 2016 gold medallist in the 1,500 metres who missed the Olympic trials because of a hamstring injury, in an X post.
Many high-profile absentees compete in track and gymnastics.
Jamaican star Elaine Thompson-herah became the first woman to win consecutive 100- and 200-metre titles after taking gold at the Rio de Janeiro Games in 2016 and the Tokyo Games in 2021. She hoped to repeat the feat in Paris, but she suffered an Achilles tendon injury in June during the New York Grand Prix. Shortly after, Thompson-herah said she would not defend the 200-metre title but hoped to make the relay team and defend her 100-metre crown. Instead, the injury will force her to miss the entire competition.
“It’s a long road, but I am willing to start over and keep working and to make full recovery and resume my track career,” Thompson-herah wrote on Instagram. “I am hurt and devastated to be missing the Olympics this year but at the end of the day it’s sports and my health comes first.”
Athing Mu’s star rose during the Tokyo Games, where she won a gold medal in the 800 metres. But the American won’t defend the title in Paris after she fell during the first lap of the event final and finished last at the U.S. Olympic Trials in June. Mu’s coach argued that she was clipped by another runner, but USA Track & Field denied her appeal and she was left out of the relay pool.
Keni Harrison and Lolo Jones, 100-metre hurdlers, failed to qualify at the U.S. trials, as did 400-metre star Dalilah Muhammad. American sprinter Trayvon Bromell did not make it to the trials after suffering an adductor injury in May, ending his bid for a third straight Olympic appearance. Centrowitz’s injury will cost him a shot at his fourth and final Olympics.
Injuries were a central story at the U.S. gymnastics trials in Minneapolis, where Shilese Jones and Skye Blakely entered the event as favourites to earn Olympic berths. Jones, a six-time medallist at world championships, injured her leg while practising a vault during warm-ups before the first day of competition. Blakely tore her right Achilles tendon two days before the women’s competition began. Contender Kayla Dicello also suffered a competition-ending injury. Their absences give the U.S. a much lower scoring ceiling in Paris, though the Americans are still favoured to win gold.
Gymnast Oksana Chusovitina, an eight-time Olympian from Uzbekistan, will miss Paris, too. The 49-year-old had competed in every Summer Games dating back to 1992, but that streak will end after she suffered an injury during podium training for the Asian Gymnastics Championships.
“You see somebody else getting hurt, you’re like: ‘What the heck? Am I next or what?’” said Laurent Landi, coach of star gymnasts Simone Biles and Jordan Chiles, of the injuries during trials.
The Australian women’s soccer team held out hope that captain Sam Kerr could recover in time for Olympic selection, but she will miss the competition after suffering an ACL injury in January with her club team Chelsea.
U.S. women’s national team legend Alex Morgan was left off new coach Emma Hayes’ roster for Paris just before her 35th birthday. Hayes announced on July 12 that forward Catarina Macario, Kerr’s teammate at Chelsea, also will miss the Summer Games because of “minor knee irritation.”
The U.S. men’s basketball team replaced six-time allstar Kawhi Leonard, who had been working back from a knee injury, with Boston Celtics guard Derrick White on Wednesday.
David Taylor, a 2020 Olympic gold medallist and three-time world champion wrestler, will miss out after he was upset by Aaron Brooks during April’s Olympic trials.
Tennis stars Aryna Sabalenka and Ons Jabeur said they did not want to switch between the grass courts at Wimbledon to the clay courts at Paris’ Roland Garros this month, with the hard-court season in North America on the horizon.
“We (and my medical team) have decided that the quick change of surface and the body’s adaptation required would put my knee at risk and jeopardize the rest of my season,” Jabeur, a three-time Olympian, wrote last month on X.
So, what about the garden incident?
That involved British cyclist Katie Archibald, who won gold medals at the past two Olympics.
“I tripped over a step in the garden and managed to, somehow, dislocate my ankle; break my tibia and fibula; and rip two ligaments off the bone,” Archibald wrote last month on Instagram. “What the heck.”