Weightlifting is an intense sport. I do a few 5kg barbells from time to time, but there’s no way I’d be going anywhere near those massive weights and I have a lot of respect for those who do. However, sometimes even the strongest men and women run into trouble, like Russian bodybuilder Alexander Sedykh, who broke both of his knees when a squat he was doing went seriously wrong.
- Sedykh was competing at the World Raw Powerlifting Federation European Championships. At the time of the terrible accident, Sedykh was competing in the contest near Moscow and doing a 400kg back squat. Yikes!
- The video of the accident is chilling. It shows Alexander Sedykh struggling with the 400kg weight the minute he picked up the barbell. As his legs shake, he works to maintain his balance and eventually decides he must be in a good enough position to go for the squat. WRONG!
- It’s not long before things start to go wrong. You soon hear his knees buckling under the weight and he falls to the ground screaming in pain. Thankfully, his back and arms weren’t injured as the spotting team did keep the bar behind him after he let go.
- Turns out, Alexander Sedykh fractured both knees. And they weren’t simple fractures, either. His injuries required a six-hour surgery in which his legs were mended. “The quads were double-stitched, the knees were reassembled,” Sedykh explained, according to the Evening Standard.
- It’s going to be a long time before he’s back on his feet. As Sedykh himself explained of his prognosis, “The forecasts are as follows: lie down for two months, do not move your legs. Then learn to walk again.” That sounds like a pretty serious undertaking! It’s unclear whether he’ll be able to go back to weightlifting but something tells me he’ll find a way!
