SOCHI 2014 – Scott Kneller comes ‘Back From the Break’
After a crash like that, you’d think Scott was lucky to get off the way he did, check the video below for more. Image:: Supplied
Mountainwatch | Luke Kneller
There’s no denying it, with less than a month to go till the 2014 winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, it’s business time for our winter athletes. Points have to be made, criteria’s reached and bodies fine-tuned for what is seemingly the pinnacle of Winter Sports. With that in mind, the last place any athlete wants to be is laying on a broken back in an Italian hospital bed, with a perforated lung and a realisation that the last 4 years could all be for nothing.
Aussie Skiercross racer, Scott Kneller, unfortunately found himself in this predicament over Christmas. Only six weeks out from the Olympic opening ceremony, Scott crashed in a qualifying world cup event in San Candido – an event he won three years ago.
I’ll let the video show what went wrong…
The news reached Mum and I late at night as we were watching the live scoring online. When a DNS popped up next to Scott’s name we knew something was up but the severity of his injuries came down the line a few hours later from a teammate, “Scott got airlifted with a concussion and unknown back injuries, but like… he’s alright”
Such reassuring words. When we finally got onto him the first question was, “Can you walk and talk?” Fortunately for Scott, his spinal cord was still in tact but he had broken the transverse processes on the left side of his L1 through to L4. In layman’s terms, he broke the wings off his lower four vertebrae.
The initial dread lifted immensely when we knew Scott would make a full recovery, which as far as I’m concerned was all that mattered. Sure, the thought of him missing the Olympics was prevalent and devastating but we now knew that long term, he’d be ok…
The following weeks were spent soaking up radiation from x rays and cat scans, all the while the swelling was receding and movement increasing. He finally got the all clear to fly home to the Australian institute of Sport in Canberra where he has been for the past couple of weeks.
Hard at work with physio, or is it training – all with a broken back Image:: Supplied
I don’t know if it was because his body was in such good shape before the crash, or the overdose of Gamma rays this past week but he is showing some superhuman attributes. He’s just three weeks out from the crash now, and he is benching 100kg, squatting 80kg, jogging, swimming and cycling. The team at the AIS and Scott, have been working around the clock with the possibility of recovering by Sochi becoming more and more of a reality.
The next problem he had was, would he still qualify after missing the last three World Cups? The news came yesterday. His injury had only seen him drop back to 27th place, of a required top 32… He’d qualified.
Officially qualified and now hungrier than ever for the Olympics, I think the only thing that will stop him are Russia’s anti-gay laws.
To Scott and your incredible recovery, drive and athleticism I wish you all the best and I know you will crush it come Sochi. And for the rest of our Athletes, get it done!
