Horrific Injury Shatters Weightlifter’s Rio Dream
An horrific elbow injury shattered hopes for Armenian Weightlifter, Olympian Andranik Karapetyan to win gold in the 77kg weightlifting event at the Rio Olympics.
The reigning European champion suffered an elbow dislocation during his second attempt when trying to lift 195kg on Wednesday evening.
The freak injury made the 20-year old weightlifter scream and he writhed in pain stunning spectators in the arena.
Medical teams came to the rescue and rushed to his aid.
This ordeal was captured by images in social media and on the web.
The Freak Injury
The horrific injury flashed across the internet and captured moments of the incident were seen in a CNN news report.
Karapetyan looked almost certain to bring Armenia its first medal of the 2016 Summer Games. But this was not to be for the young athlete.
The freak injury happened during Karapetyan’s clean and jerk of his lift. When he was about to raise to his shoulders, a freak injury struck his left arm and his joint popped out. The weights crashed to the floor.
As he was writhing with pain and in tears, the medical teams came to his rescue. He was rushed immediately to the hospital. Obviously, Karapetyan was not able to finish the event.
Karapetyan’s coach was horrified as well and couldn’t even dare to watch.
The gold medal was won by Kazakhstan’s Nijat Rahimov, who broke the clean and jerk world record. Lyu Xiaojun of China took silver and Egypt’s Mohamed Maymoud won bronze.
Karapetyan’s Records
Andranik Karapetyan won a gold medal at the 2016 European Weightlifting Championships. The young weightlifter grabbed 170 kg and clean and jerking 197 kg, setting 367 kg for the total.
Karapetyan also competed in the 2015 World Weightlifting Championships but came in 4th. But the disqualification of North Korean weightlifter Kim Kwang-song made Karapeyan garner the bronze medal with a total 363 kg.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJ_rR1DKkQ4
