by Stuart Weir
The Olympic bronze medalist, Holly Bradshaw, is out of the European Championships.
The official release is below, but Holly noted that she had a back issue, which I would describe as a back spasm.
Holly Bradshaw admits that she is nearing the end of her career and is concerned about injuries and how they will affect her life as a post-elite athlete.
Holly Bradshaw is one of our most popular athletes on the global stage; she is quite honest about mental health and the need to appreciate your personal needs. This article link is an example: https://www.runblogrun.com/2024/01/holly-bradshaw-on-post-olympic-blues.html
We wish Holly Bradshaw a complete recovery and to see her excel in Paris; this is the release on Bradshaw not moving on in the Rome Women’s pole vault:
Holly Bradshaw – NM [did not advance to the final]
“I have been struggling with my Achilles a little, but my Achilles felt good. But out on the warm-up track, I put my back out. I did it three weeks ago, and I just got rid of it. But today, I was literally doing an innocuous jump, and I put my back out, and I was like, ‘Oh, great.’ I didn’t have a lot of confidence in the warm-up. I had a lot of run-throughs because it’s going into extension.”
“As I am coming to the end of my career, I am having thoughts like what if I really hurt myself, what if I hurt my back and I can’t play with my kids. I struggled a bit on warm-up, but then I did get going. I was on too small a pole to clear the bar. It is crap, but I’m trying not to live in the minute, I’m looking at the bigger picture.”
