A 24-year-old gymnast is attracting positive attention for her quick and smooth recovery from a sudden eye injury during the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Flavia Saraiva, who is representing Brazil in the summer games, competed with a black eye earlier this week—but that didn’t stop her from contributing to her team’s performance, which landed them on the podium.
On Tuesday July 30, the young woman was warming up for her routine on the uneven bars when she took a bad fall. She landed on her back while preparing to swing around the bar. Live broadcasting coverage of the event captured the accident on camera, which resulted in a cut above and bruise below her right eye.
Saraiva said that she “could not see” immediately after the injury but the doctor assigned to the team assured her that “everything was all right.” She explained that, when she tripped and fell, her knee struck her eye, causing the injury. Though slightly disassociated, the athlete quickly rolled off the mats so her teammates could continue their warmups.
The suddenly injured gymnast reportedly asked those around her “where am I” before someone drew attention to the injury, saying, “it’s bleeding.” Saraiva then realized that her eye was bleeding, after putting her hand to her face. She said later that she “didn’t understand anything” but told someone who asked if she “was warm” that she was “now awake.”
The young Brazilian came to the Paris Olympics hoping to bring home her first medal. Four years ago, at the 2020 Olympic Games held in Tokyo, Japan, her only chance to do so was on the balance beam and floor routines. She did not receive a medal that year.
Saraiva first competed in the Olympics in 2016, hosted in her own country’s capital of Rio de Janeiro. That summer, her team scored eighth in the team final, and she finished fifth—just two places behind American star gymnast Simone Biles—in the balance beam.
Despite her eye injury during warmups this year, however, Saraiva contributed to the bronze medal victory for her team. Brazil claimed third place in the women’s artistic gymnastics final, placing behind Italy in second and the United States in first.
