Image via Complex Original
The human body is a beautiful and sometimes horrifying thing, and the Olympics is the ultimate testament to that. Sport injuries can hurt to watch more than most injuries, mainly because Olympic athletes sacrifice so much to get their bodies prepared for global competition. When somebody watching the Olympics stubs their toe on the way to get more chips, it probably won’t change their career path in the same devastating way it can for an Olympic athlete.
So join us as we take you on an emotional journey, breaking you down and building you back up again, giving you the goriest injuries in Olympics history before ending with some of the most uplifting. We’re going from nauseating to inspiring real quick. From gore to greatness, these are the worst injuries in Olympic history.
Samir Ait Said, Gymnastics
Games: 2016 Rio Summer Olympics
This video stands as a symbolic representation of the lead up to the Olympics this year. French gymnast Samir Ait Said welcomed us to the Rio Games with one of the worst leg injuries in recent memory. After coming down awkwardly on the vault during qualifiers, Said’s left leg bore the weight of his body, resulting in an audible bone snap and an entire lower leg facing in the wrong direction. Worse than the actual impact itself, is the image of Said lying on the mat holding his newly reshaped leg, silenced by a probable intense shot of adrenaline. And apparently the medics dropped the stretcher too because the whole leg thing wasn’t enough. Get well, Samir!
Paul George, Basketball
Games: 2014 FIBA World Championships (Team USA scrimmage)
Even though Said’s injury came first on this list, mainly due to timeliness, in some ways that break was really just a warm up to Paul George’s leg injury. Because if you’re gonna snap your lower leg, the entire bone may as well pop through, too. During a 2014 scrimmage for Team USA (okay so not technically the Olympics, but too obvious not to add), George’s leg ended up looking like a prop from a bad horror movie after landing awkwardly near the basket.
The broken leg, as horrific as it was at the time, didn't sideline George for long. With the support of his fans and peers, Paul George persevered and the Indiana Pacers forward had one of his best seasons this past year, and even came through to offer advice to 2016’s worst injury recipient Samir Ait Said.
Janos Baranyai, Weightlifting
Games: 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics
Similar to the Said injury, this one ends with a dangling limb. At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Hungarian weightlifter Janos Baranyai tried to snatch 326.3 pounds over his head, which resulted in the pressure forcing his elbow out of the socket, leaving his forearm to hang loosely on an angle that no forearms should hang. And as he dealt with the pain of an out of place elbow, the aforementioned 326.3 pound bar landed on his back, adding injury to, well, injury.
Jaehyouk Sa, Weightlifting
Games: 2012 London Summer Olympics
It’s hard to say which lifting injury is worse, especially since watching either video more than once is an easy way to induce vomiting. Four short years after the Baranyai incident and lifting about 30 more pounds than the weight that snapped Baranya’s elbow, South Korean weightlifter Jaehyouk Sa’s elbow met an eerily similar fate.
Nancy Kerrigan, Figure Skating
Games: (lead up to) 1994 Norway Winter Olympics
In one of the most iconic events in Olympics history, Tanya Harding showed the world what happens when unhinged jealousy is blended with fierce competition and a ton of pettiness. Essentially, Harding went full-on nuts and hired somebody to bash in rival and fellow U.S. figure skater Nancy Kerrigan’s knee, a move that prevented her from competing at the Olympics and winning what could've been U.S. figure skating gold. A newscaster caught the moments following the attack, and something about the poor quality and the up-closeness of it all only makes the incident feel more real and terrifying. Definitely a low point in the history of sportsmanship.
Katie Glynn, Field Hockey
Games: 2012 London Summer Olympics
Field hockey is widely known in the United States as a sport for well-off suburbanites, but it’s low key ruthless. Athletes play with wooden clubs and aren’t required to wear face masks in international play, resulting in a whole lotta unexpected bloodshed. Which is exactly what happened in the London Olympics. During the during the 2012 semifinal, New Zealand striker Katie Glynn was clubbed in the back of the head and then went back into the game (unfortunately her team lost in a shootout). Apparently the IOC doesn’t care about concussion protocol and field hockey players don’t care about your face.
Mariela Scarone, Field Hockey
Games: 2012 London Summer Olympics
It wouldn’t be right if the London field hockey finals didn’t end with one last stick to face/head connection. Argentina's Mariela Scarone was in the wrong place when her face became the landing spot for a Netherlands player’s follow through during the field hockey final in 2012.
Kate Walsh, Field Hockey
Games: 2012 London Summer Olympics
Continuing with the gore that is Olympic field hockey, in 2012 Great Britain captain Kate Walsh took a stick to the face from a Japanese player, a blow that would require jaw reconstruction. JAW RECONSTRUCTION. But there’s a positive ending to this story, as Walsh promptly returned to play at the end of the tournament, helping her team secure the Bronze medal in front of their home fans.
J.R. Celski, Speed Skating
Games: 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic (Trials)
Speed Skating doesn’t seem terribly dangerous. Yes, there are blades involved, but it’s not like ice skating where the bladed individuals are being thrown into the air. Yet U.S. speed skater J.R. Celski still found a way to make a big time gash in his body, leaving a bloody blade in his thigh during the Olympic trials in 2010 after losing his footing on a turn. "I had to pull [the blade] out," J.R. Celski told Mercury News. "I saw my femur. It's not fun seeing things you don't normally see in your body."
Celski still went on to the Olympic Games, unperturbed by all that blood that came out of his body, and won two bronze medals for the U.S.
Greg Louganis, Diving
Games: 1988 Seoul Summer Olympics
Greg Louganis somehow made diving cool as hell during the late '80s. And it was during the 1988 Summer Olympics that Louganis secured his status as the ultimate (and most badass) U.S. diver. During a reverse somersault attempt, Louganis hit his head on the board, leaving him with a poor score and, even worse, five stitches.
Those stitches didn't stop Louganis from continuing on with his second dive, which would become the best scored dive of the day and an integral part of his gold medal.
Kerri Strug, Gymnastics
Games: 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics
The 2012 London Olympics gave us the Fab Five, but in the '90s the U.S. fielded a gymnastics squad equivalent to the Dream Team. But in an unexpected turn, things weren’t looking too hot after U.S. gymnast Dominique Moceanu fell in both of her events, leaving Kerri Strug as the only answer to finish things off for the gold. And things actually got worse when Strug also fell on her first vault and somehow messed up her ankle in the process. But like the plot to good and predictable sports movie, the U.S. somehow pulled it together and beat everyone. Strug went on to the second attempt at the vault, sticking it perfectly on one ankle, only to fall to her knees in agony once it was all over.
Derek Redmond, Track & Field
Games: 1992 Barcelona Summer Olympics
A pulled hammy is a fairly inconsequential sports injury, but its impact becomes a whole lot bigger during an Olympic event. Great Britain’s Derek Redmond came into the semifinals of the 400m race as the fastest runner in his qualifying heat. It looked as if he would clinch at least a medal in the event during the race’s opening stretch, until his hamstring called it quits and snapped on the straightaway. In one of the grittiest and most inspiring moments in Olympic history, Redmond continued the race all the way to the finish with the help of his dad. This injury isn’t graphic, but has the power to make you cry for a sustained two minutes, so it deserves as much of a warning as the rest of them. To this day Redmond lives on as a legend, even without any Olympic medals to his name.