Opening ceremony for the 2012 Olympic Games tonight! However, many athletes miss out on their long-awaited 15 minutes of fame because they are facing an injury deemed irreparable. Such is the case -as torn ligaments end the 2012 Olympic dreams for Chicago area’s gymnast Anna Li. As Olympic excitement builds we share in the disappointment of this promising young athlete’s injury during training in London.

An article in the Chicago Tribune today states, “As an alternate member of the women’s Olympic gymnastics team, Anna Li, of Aurora, had almost no chance of competing. That was fine with her. The Waubonsie Valley High School graduate appreciated how far she had come in such a short time to make the team. Her trip to the United Kingdom was a thrill, a personal Olympic victory. But that thrill was tempered as training wrapped up. Li, 23, fell while practicing a dismount on the uneven bars, tearing ligaments in her neck. From a practical standpoint, the injury poses no change in her status. The top five U.S. women gymnasts chosen after the Olympic trials July 1 are expected to be listed as the competition team when final rosters are submitted Saturday…

She helped lead UCLA to a national championship in 2010, but collegiate-level gymnastics are less rigorous than the demands of Olympic training. After graduating with a history degree, Li did stunt work in car commercials and was a background performer in a TV gymnastics drama…The desire to compete at an Olympic level, however, kept hounding her. And in March 2011, she returned to Aurora and resumed intensive training with her parents — both Olympic gymnastic medalists. Despite losing months of work after surgery to repair a broken foot in October, Li made the Olympic team as an alternate.

USA Gymnastics President Steve Penny said Thursday that Li accepted the role “extremely gracefully.” He called the injury “heartbreaking. I know it’s not easy for her, and I know it’s not easy for us.”

Li said she’s planning on staying in London to support the team from the stands when competition occurs Sunday night.”

Thankfully, we know ligament tears can be easily repaired with just a few Prolotherapy treatments.Unfortunately for Li, she was not able to find Prolotherapy in time – not for her foot and not for the torn ligaments in her neck.

As you know from our posts, ligaments attach to bones and help hold structures together. When ligaments weaken, they are like stretched out rubber bands and cannot support the structures that they were meant to support. The only treatment that we know of that stimulates the body to repair these structures is Prolotherapy. Prolotherapy involves injecting proliferating (to grow) solutions at the place where the ligaments attach to the bone causing the body to send healing inflammatory agents the area and lay down new tissue. The result is a stronger, more stable, less painful area. We perform Prolotherapy in all areas of the body, including the neck, feet, wrists, back, elbows, knees! Athletes of all levels should consider Prolotherapy if they find themselves side-lined with an injury!