‘I ripped my ass’: Russian cyclist on winning medals with shocking injury
Russian cyclist Daria Shmeleva has said that sometimes the price of victory is high as she revealed that she won three European titles last summer with a torn gluteal muscle.
“At one of the training sessions (before the European championship) we were working on hill climbing and acceleration technique while riding in pairs,” Shmeleva said talking to Match TV.
READ MORE: ‘Not fair’: World cycling bronze medalist criticizes transgender athlete’s victory
“The next day after the training I felt pain in right gluteus muscle exactly in a place where it joins posterior surface of thigh. I thought it was mere stretching and the muscle could heal itself. So I didn’t say anything to my coach.”
Without a computing tomography scan (CT scan) to assess the injury, the 24-year-old cyclist went to Glasgow (UK) to take part in the continental tournament where she earned three gold medals.
After undergoing a detailed medical observation, the newly-crowned champion was informed that the alleged stretching was in fact a muscle rupture which could have made her pull out of the European tournament had it been detected earlier.
“When it was discovered that I had seriously injured the right gluteus muscle all of the doctors were shocked saying they had never seen anything like this (winning awards with a torn muscle) before.
"‘Now we know what the phrase ‘to rip your ass’ looks like,’ they said,” the cyclist added.
Shmeleva made a splash at the 2018 European championship claiming four awards, including two individual titles, one team sprint gold and a bronze taken in the keirin.
