On Saturday www.islandstats.com reported Olympian Roy Allan Burch got back in the pool for the first time for competition since his double patella tendon rupture sustained during training.
After having a few days to reflect, he said, “Getting back on the blocks was huge for me. The culmination of 1000s of hours of rehab and training lead to that moment and it was satisfying to complete. It feels good because I didn't expect to race until January. Being able to attain a baseline in mid-November allows me to take an even better look at what I will have to do to take the next step.”
When asked what has the recovery from racing been like? Burch went on to say, “The recovery from racing was probably the easiest thing I've done so far. I had been dealing with a bit of swelling over the left knee from breaking a scar band so my knee flared up a bit but it was nothing that I couldn't deal with. The mental recovery was the most difficult part as I had to reset my mind for the amount of intense work I was about to put my body through and the amount of pain I Would have to endure after already having put in a heavy workload for the last 6 months.”
Burch will next be in competition January 15th which was initially the first competition he planned on returning to racing.
Burch’s doctors and coaches are mostly in shock. Burch said, “They are surprised that I decided to push through the injury and more surprised that I've gotten myself to this point already. I had realized the full seriousness of my injury when I walked into my 6 month Doctors appointment and they were happy to see me walking without aid. My support staff had given me optimistic news about how I would recover but with such a rare injury they really didn't know how things would pan out. My doctor didn't have any information on this kind of recovery and I've essentially given him a baseline of how one can recover from a double patella tendon rupture.”
Burch concluded, “Having lost all the muscles in my lower extremities it's all about strength gain now and I have time. I will be solely relying on my work ethic and pain tolerance to get me back to feeling the way I used to in order to give myself a shot at making Rio. Anything is possible now.”
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