Australian Kylie Palmer, whose last few years have already been marred by a positive doping test and back-and-forth controversy between international bodies such as FINA and WADA, has reportedly sliced her hand and will miss two to three weeks in the water (www.theaustralian.com.au).
Palmer suffered a deep cut in the webbing between her left thumb and index finger on Monday, and had surgery done on the muscle this past Tuesday to treat the injury. Her coach Chris Mooney stated that “she’s very upbeat and you never count a champion out. We will just be coming from a bit further back than we expected.”
Palmer had to miss the 2015 Kazan World Championships due to complications from a positive test for a banned diuretic at the 2013 World Championships. Now, the 25-year-old will face this setback with the Australian Olympic Trials rapidly approaching. They are set for April 7th to 14th in Adelaide.
Now forced to sit out of the upcoming Victorian Championships, Palmer must try to get her training and racing back on track as she hopes to earn a spot on the Australian Olympic team, which will be incredibly competitive for the freestyle races that she contends.
Kylie’s best chance is to concentrate on the 200 free . 3 weeks with no handwork . no weights , trials in early April , on top of abnormally slow season for season times – I don’t know. The upbeat is no one else is posting times that says “i’ve got it don’t bother “. Not that there is anything wrong with that – not.
Coach Mooney is a super coach. If anyone can get her on track and work around this injury in the meantime, it’s him.