Gasps could be heard from around the Rio Olympic Arena as the extent of the 26-year-old’s gruesome injury became apparent.
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Highlights footage of the injury is too graphic to be shown on the BBC Sport website.
The Produnova – a handspring double-front somersault – has the highest degree of difficultly for a women’s vault, a 7.0, and only five people have attempted in competition.
Ait Said acknowledged the crowd with a wave as he was carried from the venue on a stretcher.
“It was very hard, very emotional”, said French teammate Cyril Tommasone.
“The French gymnast breaking his leg is one of the worst things I have seen in awhile”: One traumatised watcher put.
The sound of Samir’s leg snapping is said to have echoed around the arena.
Many gymnasts try to pack as many skills into their routine as they can to pile up points.
“It’s a pity that gymnastics developed like that”, Hambuechen said.
“There’s always more hard, higher risk”.
It’s so unsafe some want it banned because of the potentially life-threatening injuries if a gymnast over-rotates and lands on their neck. That’s what really is annoying.
“I believe that practice makes ideal, and then it is not hard anymore”, she insisted. He said: “I feel for you brother”. “That was a simple system”.
French gymnast Samir Aït Saïd suffered a horrific double leg fracture at the Rio Olympics on Saturday as shocked rivals questioned the scoring system which pushes competitors to try increasingly risky moves.
Said crumpled to the floor immediately after his vault landing.
“He is in the hospital with a doctor now”. We will give more news when we have it.
“We don’t know what happened, except that it was his tibia”.
But just minutes later the athlete was in even more excruciating pain after medical staff attempting to bundle him into a waiting ambulance dropped the lower end of the stretcher.
Rings specialist Ait Said was France’s leading medal hope on the rings apparatus in Rio.
While Ait Said was little known in the United States before the incident that earned him the sympathy of millions, he is a popular figure in his homeland. “The injury on my knee is big, but the emotional injury is way bigger”. However, he was returned and competed for his team in the next rotation, pommel horse, to post a solid score of 14.233.
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“That was unbelievable”, Hambuechen said.
