'All injuries aren’t just bad luck'- American sprint legend insists as he makes plea to athletes

'All injuries aren’t just bad luck'- American sprint legend insists as he makes plea to athletes

Abigael Wafula 19:50 - 12.07.2024

Michael Johnson has insisted that not all injuries are by bad luck and urged athletes to normalise taking extra care of their bodies.

American sprint legend Michael Johnson has made a controversial statement concerning injuries affecting athletes.

The four-time Olympic champion noted that not all injuries are bad luck and athletes should always look after themselves to avoid being injured and missing out on major championships.

This Olympic season, many athletes have withdrawn from the Olympic Games due to injuries including Olympic marathon silver medallist Brigid Kosgei who had to pull out of the main marathon team to the Olympics. She has since been replaced by Sharon Lokedi, the 2022 New York City Marathon champion.

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Two-time world 200m champion Shericka Jackson also pulled up a slight injury at the Gyulai Istvan Memorial, being forced to walk from the track after failing to finish the 200m race.

The American icon insisted that being healthy as an athlete is part of being a champion on top of running fast times and winning.

“Every track athlete gets injuries. But being a successful athlete (winning and running fast) includes doing all the work necessary to minimize injuries. All injuries aren’t just bad luck,” he said in a post on his X (Twitter) handle.

Track and field fans in the comment section backed him up, with one fan, Fitz Dunk, a former athlete commenting: “I said last year that staying healthy is part of being a champion.”

Another fan added a comment saying noting that athletes should invest more in their warm ups and stretching after intense work outs.

“They just don't know how valuable warm ups, stretching & cool downs after exertion is to preventing injury. Somethings are very preventable...,” the fan wrote.

Another added a comment saying: “The common routine for Kenyan athletes is 6 days running 1 day rest on top of the other recovery habits they have. What is the common hard / easy / rest day split for sprinters?”

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