Photo courtesy of WA Today

Thomas Bouhail is a veteran French gymnast who won the silver on vault at the 2008 Olympics and gold on vault at the 2010 World Championships. Thomas is the first and only World Champion from France. Bouhail had been training with his eyes set on the London Games but suffered a serious injury that will keep him from competing at the 2012 Olympics. 

Thomas was supposed to compete at the Olympic Test Event in January with the rest of his teammates, but withdrew shortly before the competition and not many people knew why. Luckily the French were able to qualify to the Games as a team without Bouhail, but there was still the question of, "Where's Thomas?" 

It has recently been released that Bouhail suffered a serious injury on Christmas Eve while training for the event- he fell off the high bar and fractured his left leg. The champion gymnast expected to have one operation to fix his leg injury and to stay in the hospital for several days. However, Bouhail stayed in the hospital for a total of 6 weeks and had 15 operations.  

A fracture can be a rather simply injury, but Bouhail's injury quickly become very complex.  The injury led to many complications the days following his accident, including problems in his knee ligaments and sciatic nerve. 

"The question was posed at Christmas was whether or not Thomas would participate at the Olympic Games this summer. A few days later, the doctors suddenly told us that they would put in every effort to save his leg," Michael Bouhail (Thomas' brother) told a news conference. Luckily, the doctors were able to save his leg but only after removing a few muscles.  

Bouhail was finally able to leave the hospital on February 4th but was still "in shock." WA Today reports that, "Having no choice but to withdraw from the London Games this summer, the future of France's first and only world Champion...remains in doubt."

The French team barely missed qualifing to the Olympics at the World Championships in Tokyo. The top 8 teams earned a berth to the Olympic Games and the French missed out on the last of these coveted spots by only about half of a point. As mentioned previously, the French team has now claimed the spot at the Olympics by qualifying at the Olympic Test Event. But, unfortunately, the injured Bouhail will most likely not be a member of the team. At the 2008 Beijing Games, the French team qualified to the team final and placed 8th. How with the team fare without their star vaulter?

 

Read the full article here.