22-year-old Auburn University gymnast, Samantha Cerio, broke both legs at the NCAA competition, leading to her retirement from the sport.
Samantha Cerio had hoped to deliver a perfect performance at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge, La., to help the Auburn Tigers secure a spot in the NCAA’s region final.
Instead, she landed awkwardly after a tumbling pass and fell as her legs crumbled beneath her during a so-called blind landing — in what many have called the worst sports-related injury they have ever seen.
Samantha Cerio, had to be carted out of Friday’s NCAA gymnastics regional in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on a stretcher after the accident. The 5-foot senior from Huntersville, North Carolina, was attempting a handspring double front on her first tumbling pass when she landed awkwardly and suffered the gruesome injury.
Watch the shocking moment below;
Cerio later took to Instagram late Sunday to announce that she will be retiring as a gymnast. She wrote:
Friday night was my final night as a gymnast. After 18 years I am hanging up my grips and leaving the chalk behind. I couldn’t be prouder of the person that gymnastics has made me to become. It’s taught me hard work, humility, integrity, and dedication, just to name a few. It’s given me challenges and road blocks that I would have never imagined that has tested who I am as a person. It may not have ended the way I had planned, but nothing ever goes as planned.
Thank you Auburn family for giving me a home and a chance to continue doing the sport that will always be my first love. I am honored to have had the privilege to represent the navy and orange AU for the past 4 years with my team by my side. Thank you for letting me share my passion with you. Thank you for letting me be a part of something bigger than myself.
War Eagle Always.
