Just two days after accepting the inaugural British National Lottery’s ‘Athlete of the Year’ award, 21-year-old Duncan Scott revealed he is recovering from two ruptured ankle ligaments. In true swimmer fashion, Scott incurred the injury while ‘falling over pavement.’
Per The Herald Scotland, “I was in Stirling walking back home, and I kind of fell off the pavement and rolled the outside of my ankle,” said Scott. “I was thinking ‘I actually can’t walk here, oh my God’. But my mate was with me and he said ‘och, just walk it off’. So I got some ice on it and thought it wouldn’t be that bad a couple of hours later. But it was massive. So I had to message my coach [Steven Tigg] and with it being at Stirling, we’ve got the Institute of Sport right at our fingertips so obviously I was really fortunate I was able to go to A&E straight away. The first thing was ‘is it broken?’, no, so tick that box.
“Then it was get a scan to see what has happened with the ligaments,” he added. “Within two days I was seeing a specialist. No surgery is required, just rehab really, and obviously I am really fortunate to have the physio at Stirling on hand and they have contacted the British swimming doctor. He is called Guy Evans, he also works for Bath Rugby, so he sees people do this week in week out. I have the best of care. I just don’t want to rush things. It happened just two or three days before I was due to get back into the pool which was a bit annoying. I’m just doing the arms in the pool right now, no leg movements.” (The Herald Scotland)
Scott also said of his injury, “It’s obviously quite early [in the season] so I’m not sure I was looking to be at a certain place at the minute in terms of training. I’ve been back two or so weeks now and just doing some pool work and doing a bit more on land; it’s just about trying to let it recover.
“I’m not trying to rush back into things; that would be the biggest mistake.” (BBC Scotland)
Scott looks to get back into full training a couple of weeks from now, which is plenty of time to begin his journey towards the 2019 World Championships, as well as the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.
The University of Stirling athlete has already had a massive summer, becoming the most decorated Scot ever at a Commonwealth Games. His performances on the Gold Coast were highlighted by an individual gold in the stacked men’s 100m freestyle race.
Before that, Scott had snagged two medals at the 2017 World Championships as a vital member of Britain’s gold medal-winning 4x200m freestyle and silver medal-winning 4x100m medley relays.
Yep, it seems that they are more prone to injuries. Fell out of the college bunk bed, ankle in a boot. Stepped wrong and majorly sprained ankle, and now in a boot… Sound familiar?
Many swimmers have loose ligaments, are born with it, “double jointed”, it gives them the flexibility to do what they do; downside, they have a higher chance of hyperextending their joints.
I got undercut playing offseason swimmer basketball one spring. Sprained my ankle pretty badly – couldn’t do any kick sets for a month. But I’m betting if I didn’t have the flexible ankles I do I may have torn something, and that would have been even worse.
True fact: dolphins live 100% of their lives in the water, and no dolphin has ever sprained their ankle. That’s just science.
Takeaway: Don’t leave the water.
On my highschool club team we played soccer one day every summer and I tore my quad playing, was in PT for months, and then the next year re-tore it the same day. We really should stay in the pool
At first I thought I was seeing a post from The Onion 🙂
Yep. Swimmer forays onto land… in college we had a guy miss practice mysteriously one day – turned out he had slipped down the stairs and knocked himself out for a few minutes, then when he came to he went to the doc to check for a concussion. Thankfully nothing there. Then there was the guy that tore his bicep trying to catch himself falling out of bed and missed most of a season… And even *in* the water – we had a freshman dive in on a get-out-swim relay, had his goggles fill with water, forgot to do his flip turn and went smashing head on into the wall. That one actually did end up with a concussion. He… Read more »
Despite what his doctor said, anyone being knocked out for a few minutes has just suffered a major concussion.
“In true swimmer fashion”. That’s kind of a dick thing to say.
Meant in jest, of course.I encourage you to lighten up!
I totally read it as tongue in cheek, which made me laugh and want to click on it. Keep up the good work Loretta!
It’s a true thing to say. True swimmer are awkward on land, except perhaps Chalmers and a few others
Why do I both want to Upvote & Downvote this comment? XD
It is kind of rude to say, but at the same time, I have multiple swimmers on the ‘Basketball Ban’ list when we get to the last month out from a taper meet because of previous clumsy injuries.
Going to a ‘learn to luge’ clinic during taper is also a bad idea. Ask me how I learned that one. And the year before that, I ended up with a minor wrist sprain when I had to really turn the key to start my junker car and tweaked the same wrist a few weeks later while lugging home books from the library to write a term paper.
Swimmers are sometimes awkward, but we shouldn’t be. Teams should cultivate athleticism on dry land too, and they’ll make better swimmers in the end.
Yea but it’s funny.