WARNING: This clip is explicit and unsettling, and some viewers may find it upsetting.
Samantha Cerio is a gymnast who attends Auburn University in Alabama. The senior student was injured while competing in the Baton Rouge Regional NCAA gymnastics tournament in 2019.
Samantha attempted a handspring double front with a blind landing during her floor performance, but reached for the ground a touch too soon.
While the cameras were rolling, the athlete fell to the mat. Samantha was seen on video fracturing both of her knees and shattering both of her legs.
Employees and coaches dashed toward the crying athlete, who clutched her legs in anguish. She was then brought out on a stretcher as the audience rose to their feet and gave her a standing ovation.
Samantha was selected SEC co-scholar athlete of the year and was regarded as the team’s “heart and soul.”
Samantha went to Instagram to express her retirement from the sport while pursuing her degree in aerospace engineering- she is hanging up her grips and leaving the chalk behind after 18 years. She couldn’t be more proud of the individual gymnastics has made. It has taught her, to mention a few things, hard work, modesty, honesty, and devotion. It has presented her with obstacles and roadblocks that she could never have predicted, putting her character to the test. It may not have ended the way she had hoped, yet nothing ever does.
