Gymnast Zsófia Kovács injured her knee during the podium practice of the Olympics on Thursday evening, women’s national team captain Imre Draskóczy For M4 Sport he said they are now waiting for a diagnosis. The gymnast was given an appointment for an MRI examination on Friday morning.
In relation to what happened, Draskóczy said that the three-time European champion athlete did his exercise as planned with his coach, János Trenka, but something went wrong when he landed. “He came down with his tsukahara, the jump has always been critical in the past period. We didn’t see anything from the outside, now the medical team has to decide how to proceed. I think it’s an injury that makes them all think.”
Draskóczy added that since the other two Hungarian five-ring participants, Lili Czifra Bettina and Csenge Bácskay, watched the entire incident, “they had to take out sports psychology” to focus only on themselves. “Csenge is also struggling with ankle pain, but both of our gymnasts performed their podium training as best as possible, they did what was expected. But everyone’s thoughts revolved around Zsófi,” said the national team captain.
Zsófi Kovács tore the cruciate ligament in her knee in September, so she could not participate in the World Championships in Belgium in October. His surgery was successful, his recovery progressed according to plan, but this year he did not start at the continental championships, the national championships and the World Cup competitions in May.
However, according to the selection principles of the Hungarian federation, the unnamed Olympic quota was decided between the two of them at the international competition in Bucharest at the end of June. In the qualifiers in the Romanian capital, Székely achieved a higher score, Kovács was only the number one reserve, but in the end he was able to appear in the final, where he beat Székely.
Székely previously spoke on M1 about the fact that he is preparing as a reserve for the five-ring games, and as far as he knows, there is no time limit for his replacement. Krisztofer Mészáros will strengthen the Hungarian team for the men. The men’s qualifier will be held on Saturday and the women’s on Sunday.
You can read our interview with the champion gymnast from last year here.
