The month-or-so before the Olympic Games is such a weird time for an athlete. Only the tiniest of improvements can be made in such a short space of time so, the million dollar question is, how do you navigate the treacherously thin line between training just enough to peak, but not so much that you’ve got residual fatigue in your body or mind going into the Games. And there’s always the risk of injury.
Train too hard and you might pick up a niggle, but if you don’t fully commit to what you’re doing, there is, ironically, an even greater chance of injury occurring than if you’re fully invested. A pull of a hamstring or a tweak of an achilles can be fatal to an athlete’s chances of standing on the Olympic podium. It’s a constant balancing act and the closer the Olympics get, the finer the line an athlete has to tread.
And then there’s the injuries that are utter freak occurrences. Injuries that come out of nowhere, are nothing to do with your Olympic preparations and are just pure bad luck. That’s what happened to Katie Archibald this week.
Archibald is one of Scotland’s greatest-ever Olympians. Already, the track cyclist has two gold and a silver medal from the Olympic Games to her name. And, given her status as one of the true greats in track cycling, it seemed likely that she would add further to that tally this summer in Paris.
Yet, it’s not to be. On Tuesday, Archibald tripped over a step in her garden and dislocated her ankle, broke her tibia and fib.
