SwimMAC Elite suffered a blow to its training team recently, as Bermudian swimmer Roy Burch suffered a serious injury on March 27th. Burch was performing his usual dynamic dry land warm-up, when he felt both of his legs buckle beneath him, popping in the process. Burch described the experience as “someone pulling a rug out from under me”, rendering the athlete immobile in those subsequent moments.
The cause was a bi-lateral patella rupture in both his knees, doctors would discover, which required fairly immediate surgery on March 28th since Burch was unable to bear any weight on his legs at all. In fact, the 29-year-old is still unable to put any weight on his lower limbs as the tendons re-bind together.
Instead of busting out swift swims in the pool or climbing to new heights on the infamous SwimMAC Elite hanging rope, Burch is stationed in a wheelchair during the coming months, with his rehabilitation beginning this week. The long road to recovery will have him moving from wheelchair to walker, walker to crutches, then on to more load-bearing activities before finally re-entering his aquatic kingdom.
Burch hopes to be back in swimming form in the fall, but is dedicated to a purposeful and successful recovery until then. In his own words, Burch describes the experience as “extremely humbling….in a matter of milliseconds I went from being my strongest and most athletic to my weakest.” But, he does indeed hold the same ambitious thoughts and motivation, saying, “Being in Rio will be all the sweeter after I beat this injury and get back on track. I’ve had a major perspective change and have come to appreciate things I’ve never thought about.”
when did he retire from swimming
I’m so sorry to hear the bad news. I hope Roy’s surgery went well. I experienced a right petella rupture while playing basketball. I don’t play basketball..I’m a swimmer. I’m 5 weeks into the recovery prococess. My biggest issue is not my knee but my quad muscle is very weak. I’ve been going to therapy 3-4 times a week to regain strength in my my quad muscle. Don’t rush it. It takes time for the tendons to heal (6-8 weeks). It’s a slow recovery but I’m positive Roy will be back in the pool soon and his tendons will heal completely.
I’m so sorry to hear the bad news. I hope your surgery went well. I experienced a right petella rupture while playing basketball. I don’t play basketball..I’m a swimmer. I’m 5 weeks into the recovery prococess. My biggest issue is not my knee but my quad muscle is very weak. I’ve been going to therapy 3-4 times a week to regain strength in my my quad muscle. Don’t rush it. It takes time for the tendons to heal (6-8 weeks). It’s a slow recovery but I’m positive you will be back in the pool soon and your tendons will heal completely.
Sounds like a horrific injury. I hope that Roy makes a full recovery
What kind of warm up was he doing to blow out both knees?
I’ve heard of it happening before to swimmers. It’s pretty crazy that both knees gave out, I’ve only heard of it happening to one knee. I would need to know more about what happened before I call out the coaches, but it sounds like just a freak accident that happens in the weight room. Coaches can certainly take precautions to avoid something like that, but the only way to completely avoid it is to stop lifting weights that puts any pressure on the knees, and that just isn’t going to happen.
Wow, I’m no doctor but this seems like a very rare injury. If I were his coaches I would take a good hard look at whatever I was asking my swimmers to do, to make certain this injury was not the result of overtraining or poor form. I mean, this is the sort of injury I would expect from a high-impact sport like football or rugby, not swimming. Pray he comes back from it to full form.
Oh man, that’s tough! Hate to hear this type of story.. Speedy recovery for Burch!