Safety First

Injuries are inherent in sport. Sometimes they also involve serious injuries. Unfortunately, I fell into that category. For several weeks, the training build-up had been going very well. Everything was on an upward trend in terms of distance and average speed. But during my training on Saturday 11 May 2024, things went wrong. For reasons that are still unclear, I crashed solidly 200 metres from the end of my training. I fell forward over the rollerskis, right shoulder and head first against the asphalt.

I immediately felt something was wrong. I could no longer put any force on my right shoulder. And when I felt at my shoulder with my hand, I immediately noticed that my collarbone was broken. Fortunately, there was a cyclist nearby who saw me fall. He helped me up and went to get help. I was completely dizzy from the fall and unable to walk anymore. Meanwhile, the pain in the shoulder was only getting worse.

At the hospital, they could only determine that my right collarbone was broken in 2 places and that the fragments had moved. As it was the weekend, they could not operate immediately. It was only after five days on Wednesday that my collarbone was surgically set again. A plate and bolts were used to fix the fragments together.

On Friday 17 May, I was able to start my rehabilitation. This consists of light mobility exercises for my right arm and gentle walks. Systematically, I can build this up a little further. And hopefully, within six weeks I can carefully start back on rollerskis.

However, I was extremely lucky. Further examination showed that my helmet had completely broken through in several places on impact. Things could have been much worse if I had not worn it. I cannot stress enough that wearing a good crash helmet when rollerskiing is essential. So never leave home without one. And if this blog has inspired you to go rollerskiing too, make sure you ALWAYS have your crash helmet on when you leave. It can save your life. As soon as I can drive a car again, I will at least buy a new crash helmet before putting the rollerskis back on. (A crash helmet you have crashed with no longer offers sufficient protection)