How Lysacek won Gold on an Injured Foot

Winning an Olympic gold medal is the greatest accomplishment an athlete can have. All of the training, work and anticipation for the completion can be slammed into a halt if one suffers an injury near the games. Evan Lysacek has been struggling with a foot injury and was still able to put on a performance of a lifetime and win a gold medal.

Prior to the world championship, Lysacek suffered from a stress fracture in his foot. For this reason, he chose to remove the quadruple jump from his performance. After winning the competition, the champion spent time in a walking boot and had to rest from training in order to allow the fracture to heel. By the time the U.S. championship came around, Lysacek’s foot was back on track and he was fearless in performing a quadruple jump in his performance.

Stress fractures are small overuse fractures commonly seen in athletes. Unlike traumatic fractures, stress fractures are very small and thus referred to as a hairline fracture. These fractures can be very difficult to see on x-ray. Since the injury is so minor, the treatment is quite simple. Rest, rest and more rest is a straightforward treatment but a very difficult thing to do. Athletes have a very difficult time sustaining from their work out regimens; but if one does not rest, the stress fracture can progress to a complete fracture that would demands surgery.
Evan Lysacek was able to skate through his injury at the world championship, and then allowed himself to heal completely afterwards. Ignoring the injury or not allowing for proper healing, the fracture could have jeopardized his future in skating. After his quadruple jump at the U.S. championship, Lysacek started to feel similar foot pain all over again. He was not diagnosed with a stress fracture, but it was the wakeup call that he needed to focus on his training and performance techniques.

The quadruple jump is the most difficult trick a male ice skater can perform and only a few people in the world can execute it with grace and precision. Due to the difficulty, and the unnatural forces caused by the takeoff and landing of the jump, injuries can easily occur. Evan Lysacek knew his body’s limits and chose to discontinue training and performing quadruple jumps. This put him at a huge disadvantage in competitions, but this did not stop him from perfectly executing every element of his program.

All athletes, including the Olympic champions, YMCA junkies and weekend warriors need to pay closer attention to their body. You can only be a good as your body can handle. No one can be their best while injured. Lysacek dissected his body’s capabilities and was still able to walk away from Vancouver as a champion without the most prestigious element of an ice skating presentation. His performance had the world at the edge of their seats and he still kept his foot safe from reinjuring.

Being In Love May Reduce Foot Pain?

The University of California Los Angeles recently did a study that showed thinking of a loved one decreased a person’s pain. While having heat applied to their forearm, 25 women were asked to rate their pain levels. When the women were shown pictures of their significant others or when they were allowed to hold their significant others hand their pain level consistently reduced.

Love is patient, love is kind, but is love an anti-pain medication? When one is suffering from a serious illness, it is obvious that having support from loved ones helps one get through the rollercoaster’s of pain and suffering. But, can love help with your everyday aches and pains? According to this study it can!

Medically, there is no definitive answer on why this may happen. Pain can only be measured by the person’s perception of the pain. Thus there is great variation in pain from one person to another. This is what we refer to as “pain threshold.” One may say they have a high pain tolerance, meaning it takes a lot before the pain “affects” them. I see this often in my clinic when I give a people injections. Some people are 100% calm, cool and collected and don’t even blink when I prick them with the needle. Others are jumping for the chandelier and screaming at the top of their lungs when all I am doing is putting a relatively small needle under their skin.

So can being in love increase your pain tolerance? Plantar fasciitis is one of the most common causes of heel pain. I see several patients a day with this common foot problem and when I ask the patients to rate their pain on a scale from 1-10, I can never predict their response. There is absolutely no consistency on how much pain this problem causes. The description is always the same “It hurts the most in the morning or after rest.” But since everyone perceives pain on a different threshold, not everyone rates it the same number. I have never dove into my patients personal lives to discover whether a pain rated a 10 actually means that they just lost the love of my life and as a result their foot hurts.

There is no doubt in my mind that having someone supportive in your life that makes you happy can help you deal with or handle your pain with slightly greater ease, but there is always a reason for the pain. .