Making sense of gymnastics Achilles injuries after Olympic hopefuls Kayla DiCello and Skye Blakely were hurt

Kayla DiCello trained her entire life to make the U.S. women's Olympic gymnastics team.

Kayla DiCello trained her entire life to make the U.S. women's Olympic gymnastics team.

After she was named an alternate for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, 2024 was shaping up to be her year. DiCello, a two-time world medalist, won the first meet of the season, the Winter Cup, and finished third in the all-around at the 2024 U.S. Championships.

In the opening routine of the U.S. Olympic Gymnastics Trials on June 27, she attempted a double-twisting Yurchenko vault she had performed thousands of times before. But instead of completing the two twists she was intending, she fell to the floor after she hit the mat. DiCello looked up at her coach and shook her head with tears in her eyes.

DiCello, 20, had ruptured an Achilles tendon and was taken off the competition floor in a wheelchair, her Olympic dream on hold once again.

She was the third top contender for the five-member Paris Olympic team to sustain a season-ending injury at the trials in Minneapolis, and hers was the second Achilles injury of the week.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/sports/olympics-gymnastics-achilles-injuries-rcna159951

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