CrossFit: Sara Sigmundsdottir’s run of injuries and bad luck continue as 2021 season ends due to knee injury
- Icelandic star, once seen as a competitor to reigning four-time champion Tia-Clair Toomey, has been rocked by injury again
- Sigmundsdottir, 28, now looks farther than ever from the athlete who came no worse than fourth from 2015-17
There was a point in time when Iceland’s Sara Sigmundsdottir was seen as the future of CrossFit.
After the 2017 CrossFit Games she looked primed to finally take the next step. She finished fourth that year, after coming third the two previous seasons. But 2017 would mark the start of the Tia-Clair Toomey era in the sport, as the Australian finally won her first title after finishing second two years in a row.
During the 2018 CrossFit Games, Sigmundsdottir was sitting in 11th heading into the “Bicouplett” event on day three of the competition. In a shock announcement, she pulled the plug on her contest, noting she’d never felt so prepared for a games and was heartbroken.
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“But early on in the competition something happened and my ribs got really sore and bruised. I was in a bit of denial and decided to tough it out. In the “Marathon row” the pain went a way as soon as I had hit 10km, so I thought this couldn't be that bad. Afterwards the pain got so much worse.”
Pulling out meant she finished 37th and was back to the drawing board. Sigmundsdottir, posting on Instagram about injuries derailing her competitions is now a common thing, and one the CrossFit community must hate to see every time it happens.
Sara Sigmundsdottir to miss CrossFit Games with ‘nightmare’ knee injury
Sigmundsdottir was one of those athletes. Once again she took to Instagram to share her thoughts, always positive, but obviously frustrated. The opening statement echoed her comments on the 2018 Games and her withdrawal due to injury.
“I have never been in as good shape as I was before the Games but unfortunately I did not perform as well as I could have. That is 100 per cent on me. Whatever else went on out there is beyond my control. ”
She burned through the competition, taking home a huge payday at the second Sanctional she had won out of the gate to start the 2020 season. It looked that she was back, and back with a vengeance. She’d taken to coaching herself, and mentally appeared back to her old self.
Then when the coronavirus forced CrossFit to reorganise its Games that season, Sigmundsdottir found herself competing last summer against 29 other women out of her home gym online for one of five spots at the in-person finale, which was held in California in October.
Sigmundsdottir was off, and it was clear right away. Once again she took to Instagram to let her fans know. In a three-part post, she explained that she suffered a shin injury in May, rushed back to competition too quickly and developed an infection. The infection resulted in a cortisol deficiency, the hormone related to muscle growth.
She finished 21st and was, once again, back to the drawing board.
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Then less than a week ago, another Instagram post bearing horrible news, just before the 2021 CrossFit Open was about to kick off.
“I experienced my biggest nightmare earlier this week when I hurt my knee in training. I felt a click in my knee during a split jerk and went straight to get an MRI scan. The results showed a ruptured ACL,” she wrote.
“I am still realising that this has actually happened and that I won’t be taking part in the 2021 CrossFit Games season. This recovery process requires imminent surgery and then months of rehabilitation. When the timeline becomes clearer I’ll share an update on what that looks like.”
Sigmundsdottir had relocated to the US again, this time to join Noah Ohlsen and company at Training Think Tank in the state of Georgia, hoping to re-energise herself and find a new style to approach the sport with.
Now, she looks towards 2022, and yet another year of trying to return to previous form. Two things need to be said: one, sometimes athletes just get hit with a string of back luck injuries and it seems this has been her fate so far.
And two, as she posted on Instagram, if anyone can come back from this, it is her, given no one in the sport has suffered as much as her after getting so close to being crowned champion so many times. It’s clear no matter how many times she gets knocked down, she comes back and returns to previous form.
In a way, Sigmundsdottir represents what CrossFit is really about. Testing yourself and your limits, finding new ways to overcome obstacles and become a better athlete and person in the process. As she wrote on Instagram: “This is my challenge now. Challenge accepted.”
