{"id":10566,"date":"2024-08-01T09:04:15","date_gmt":"2024-08-01T09:04:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=10566"},"modified":"2024-08-01T09:24:59","modified_gmt":"2024-08-01T09:24:59","slug":"how-olympic-injuries-break-bodies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=10566","title":{"rendered":"How Olympic Injuries Break Bodies"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Mariana Paj\u00f3n is one of the world\u2019s most accomplished BMX riders, and she can quickly recount some of her career totals: 18 world championships, two Olympic gold medals in racing (in 2012 and 2016) and one silver, in Tokyo in 2021.<\/p>\n

But Paj\u00f3n, a Colombian, can also rattle off the much more painful totals of the cost of so much riding: 25 fractures, 12 screws, eight surgeries and countless tears of ligaments and tendons. The medical hardware in her left arm and knee included so much metal that she used to travel with her X-rays. Opening a door or serving a glass of water hurts.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy joints are of an 80-plus-year-old,\u201d Paj\u00f3n said with a laugh. She is 32.<\/p>\n

Paj\u00f3n, who has been racing competitively since she was 4, wasn\u2019t lamenting her injuries during a recent conversation. They are simply a fact of life for an athlete.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Wear and tear naturally degrades human bodies, even the most talented ones. But performing at the elite level, especially in high-impact Olympic sports such as wrestling, rugby or gymnastics, inherently has more risks. Shoulders give out. Ligaments tear. And, for some, metal screws and titanium plates become just more hardware in the lifelong pursuit of gold, silver and bronze.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Paj\u00f3n training in Medell\u00edn, Colombia, in June. She has sacrificed her body \u201cto achieve a dream,\u201d she said.<\/span>Federico Rios for The New York Times<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Connor Fields, an American BMX rider, was badly injured during the men\u2019s semifinals at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.<\/span>Chang W. Lee\/The New York Times<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Mariana Paj\u00f3n is one of the world\u2019s most accomplished BMX riders, and she can quickly recount some of her career totals: 18 world championships, two Olympic gold medals in racing (in 2012 and 2016) and one silver, in Tokyo in 2021.But Paj\u00f3n, a Colombian, can also rattle off the much more painful totals of the cost of so much riding: 25 fractures, 12 screws, eight surgeries and countless tears of ligaments and tendons. The medical hardware in her left arm and knee included so much metal that she used to travel with her X-rays. Opening a door or serving a glass of water hurts.\u201cMy joints are of an 80-plus-year-old,\u201d Paj\u00f3n said with a laugh. She is 32.Paj\u00f3n, who has been racing competitively since she was 4, wasn\u2019t lamenting her injuries during a recent conversation. They are simply a fact of life for an athlete.Wear and tear naturally degrades human bodies, even the most talented ones. But performing at the elite level, especially in high-impact Olympic sports such as wrestling, rugby or gymnastics, inherently has more risks. Shoulders give out. Ligaments tear. And, for some, metal screws and titanium plates become just more hardware in the lifelong pursuit of gold, silver and bronze.Paj\u00f3n training in Medell\u00edn, Colombia, in June. She has sacrificed her body \u201cto achieve a dream,\u201d she said.Federico Rios for The New York TimesConnor Fields, an American BMX rider, was badly injured during the men\u2019s semifinals at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.Chang W. Lee\/The New York TimesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10568,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10566"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10566\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10569,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10566\/revisions\/10569"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}