French gymnast Samir Ait Said suffered a devastating broken leg injury while competing at the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics.
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On one of the first days of Rio Olympics competition for gymnastics, one of the competitors saw his dreams shattered due to a devastating injury. Samir Ait Said of the French team ended up with a badly broken leg on Saturday after landing badly during the Men’s Vault competition.
Said quickly clutched at his leg in pain following the incident, which drew plenty of concern from onlookers. The incident’s aftermath was also panned away from by NBC’s cameras during the event while Said was attended to by medical staff.
According to BBC.com in their report, Said, who was 26 years old, was taken off on a stretcher from the qualification event. He still was able to acknowledge the crowd as he left the area, knowing they were supporting him, despite the fact he would no longer be able to compete in Rio.
The French Olympian had previously won a gold medal at the 2013 European Championships and then a silver medal in 2015. Unfortunately for Said, his 2016 quest for any sort of medal in Brazil has now come to a sad ending. All the best goes out to Said as he begins his road to recovery from this unfortunate injury.
Beyond the injury, this is a crushing blow for Said who worked and trained so hard over the last four years to get to this point in his gymnastics career only to see it come to a heartbroken end. Hopefully, he’ll make a full recovery, even if his pursuit of Olympic gold is over.