Ragan Smith Injured, Out Of AA Final At 2017 Gymnastics World Championships

Ragan Smith Injured, Out Of AA Final At 2017 Gymnastics World Championships

Just minutes before entering the competition arena at Montreal Olympic Stadium for the 2017 World Championships women's all-around final, Ragan Smith injured her ankle during vault warmups and had to pull out of the competition.

Oct 6, 2017 by Rebecca Johnson
Ragan Smith Injured, Out Of AA Final At 2017 Gymnastics World Championships
Ragan Smith injured her ankle during vault warmups and had to pull out of the competition just minutes before entering the arena at Montreal Olympic Stadium for the 2017 World Championships women's all-around final.


Valeri Liukin later confirmed in a post-meet interview that Smith was on her last vault in warmups -- doing a double twisting Yurchenko -- and landed sideways injuring her right ankle. After first seeing the vault, he didn't know the gravity of the injury and hoped Smith would be able to continue. Unfortunately, it was worse than initially expected and took Smith out of the competition.

Following the x-rays taken following her injury, USA Gymnastics reported Smith's injury as a right ankle ligament injury, which precludes her from participating in the floor exercise final on Sunday. Canada's Ellie Black was the first alternate and will now be competing in Smith's place. Full list of finals competitors here.

Smith was entering the all-around competition as a favorite for gold after finishing second in qualifications with a 55.932.

This comes just two days after Romania's Larisa Iordache tore her Achilles tendon during the touch warmup on floor during women's qualifications, and three days after Kohei Uchimura pulled out of the men's qualifications due to a torn ligament in his ankle.