Unfortunately Gymnastics Is Dangerous
Gymnastics is a spectacular sport, one that needs a lot of training and dedication. Not everyone is capable to do those difficult moves even after years of training. It's nice to see in television, it's spectacular as I said, many times because of the difficulty level of the exercises. The need to do better, the need to do something new makes gymnasts try to introduce new elements that becomes harder and harder every day.
I've seen many accidents in TV, gymnasts got hurt after certain exercises that went wrong, some were taken out by the ambulance services and taken immediately to hospital to have surgery. I've never done a search to see any statistics about how many gymnasts have suffered permanent damage as it's something you don't want to know. I've seen some nasty falls live and was enough, even more than I wanted to see.
Today I came across a case that has shocked me. Melanie Coleman, an American collage gymnast has died due to an injury that happened after she fall off uneven bars. This is very sad new as she was only 20 and her life ended so abruptly. She has suffered a spinal cord injury and unfortunately couldn't been saved. It is extremely sad.
After reading this I ran a search to see some articles about gymnasts getting injured and found out that there were quite a few but most of them got paralyzed from neck down, which is also extremely sad. These gymnasts retire at a young age, some of them right after they turn twenty, so imagine them spending the rest of their lives in wheelchair for a mistake.
I've read that the International Gymnastics Federation started making changes after some of these accidents, like U-shaped mats around the vaulting springboard and some other changes.
About 100,000 gymnasts suffer injuries every year, according to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Common injuries include wrist fractures, cartilage damage and anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tears.
And over the past 20 years, gymnasts have started the sport at earlier ages and are now performing more difficult skills, UPMC said. source
As I said, to show something new, you need to do something that has never been done before and those are not without risks. Accidents happen, unfortunately.