Karina Biskop was only 19 when her life was destroyed. She had nothing left but to dream of her own death.
Russian bronze-medal aerobic gymnastics champion Karina was rushing for her next competition when she fell down the stairs and got a compound fracture.
The young sportswoman spent half a year in a hospital with 21 spokes in her leg. The career-ending injury, which happened a year ago, affected her so much that she even dreamed of her own death at night. She vividly described a nightmare in which she witnesses her own funeral.
“I wake up in a cold sweat every night,” Karina said. “I see myself being buried.” Specialists explained that it isn't her in the ground whom she sees, but her unrealized hopes.
Karina achieved decent results within…show more content… What’s the point now?” she said.
Doctors confirmed the end of her career and an impossibility to do sports again because of the serious injury. The tragic news deprived Karina of her ability to speak for a week. Her life has been dedicated to aerobics and now she can hardly walk without a support.
Her family keeps telling her to carry on with life, but Karina refuses: “I simply can't. I lost myself in this world.”
Although Karina is only 20, she struggles to cope with forced retirement. It was so bad for her that she couldn’t bear to see her former teammates preparing for competitions without wondering why she shouldn’t be with them.
Max Pekhterev also faced difficulties to come to terms with retirement because of horrible incident.
Max was a repeated gold-medalist in the Russian Motocross Championships who attacked his sport with reckless abandon. He said he suffered injuries, but never gave thought to his future because all he ever wanted was the adrenaline that went along with motocross.
“Pain? No, I never paid attention to that. I always took double doses of painkillers and…show more content… After a year of being confined to a wheelchair, Max tried to make a comeback, but he couldn’t compete against younger races. It was physically painful to even go over a hill on his motorbike. He lost race after race before being forced to retire.
“Now, I am a 31-year-old jobless invalid who plays PlayStation 24/7. I never imagined ending up this way.”
Retirement for some athletes can be similar to a person losing a loved one, sport psychologist at LE Performance Consulting Louise Ellis said. They experience same psychological difficulties such as deep depression or anxiety because of heavy loss.
Sportsmen are happiest when they are competing in their sport. When it is time to retire the vast majority loses that vital competitive thrill and desperate to find something to replace it.
Some athletes are affected worse than the others since they are scared to start a new live, finding themselves hopeless in other fields.
Karina is consulting with sports psychologists who help her to come to terms with the loss of sport. Although regular consultations improved her state and nightmares are no longer bothering her, she still can't adjust herself to life without sports challenging and competitive
