Garard will likely be sidelined till no less than the following CrossFit aggressive circuit.
Final summer season, Australian CrossFitter Ricky Garard took house an Particular person podium end on the 2022 CrossFit Video games. This 12 months, the veteran CrossFitter must take a while away to recuperate earlier than he can take pleasure in that type of efficiency once more.
On Apr. 6, 2023, Garard revealed in a YouTube video that his 2023 CrossFit season is over after struggling a latest shoulder damage. On the time of this text’s publication, the exact severity of Garard’s ailment is unclear. Nonetheless, the athlete maintained that he wanted surgical intervention after tearing his acromioclavicular joint (or AC joint) by falling off a mountain bike. In flip, his ensuing restoration of 4 to 6 months will knock him out of the remainder of the 2023 CrossFit season.
Garard didn’t mince phrases describing how the character of this damage hit his sensibilities. After spending 4 years away from CrossFit competitions following a suspension associated to performance-enhancing medication, the athlete was undoubtedly hoping to construct on his 2022 podium end result.
“Fairly disappointing,” Garard stated. “I’m nonetheless making an attempt to take all of it in and notice what’s really occurred. … I got here off my mountain bike, landed on my shoulder, and ruptured my AC joint. So, a good bit of harm resulted in me getting surgical procedure simply two days in the past now. It’s trying like I’m out for 4 to 6 months restoration … Meaning my season is gone for 2023. So, yeah, it’s devastating. I can’t actually imagine that it’s occurred to be sincere.”
Whereas Garard’s damage will drive him out of the 2023 CrossFit Video games on Aug. 3-6 in Madison, WI, the Australian didn’t rule out a return to later-year competitions outdoors of the CrossFit season paradigm. For instance, the 2023 Rogue Invitational, which doesn’t have a concrete date on the time of this writing, might be in play relying on how Garard’s restoration unfolds.
On condition that the competition has taken place in October for the previous two years, that might be when the CrossFit world sees Garard compete once more.
“I’ll work for coming again on the finish of the 12 months, presumably Rogue [Invitational], Dubai [CrossFit Championship], Down Below [Championship], Miami [the 2024 Wodapalooza],” Garard clarified. “There are nonetheless loads of competitions.”
Garard has made two CrossFit Video games appearances in his profession, in 2017 and 2022. He was subsequently disqualified from the 2017 iteration for performance-enhancing drug points, however earned his best-ever podium lead to final 12 months’s version. Garard completed in seventh place worldwide throughout this 12 months’s CrossFit Open and positioned first within the Oceania area and Australia.
Garard possible had bold plans to construct on his third-place efficiency within the 2022 CrossFit Video games. He’ll have to attend till the 12 months 2024 to come back again robust and in a really perfect prime type.
Featured picture: @rickygarard on Instagram