The horrific moment Olympic weightlifter turns his elbow back to front
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 12:53 PM on 13th August 2008
This is the moment Hungarian weightlifter Janos Baranyai's first Olympics ended in agony when he dislocated his right elbow in the ugliest moment yet of the Olympic weightlifting competition.
Baranyai was trying to snatch 148kg in his third lift in the men's 77kg division, when his elbow popped out of its socket.
No longer able to support the weight of the barbell, his right forearm bent backward. The 24-year-old Hungarian fell to the floor in shock, shaking and crying out in pain.
Hungary's coaching staff and competition officials rushed to Baranyai's aid as he lay trembling on the floor, his arm limp and twisted out of position.
Baranyai was carried off the platform on a stretcher and taken by ambulance to a local hospital for evaluation and treatment, said Benny Johansson, a technical controller at the event.
It was not immediately clear how serious the injury was.
'It looked really awful,' Johansson said. 'If the ligaments are damaged then it could take several months to heal."
He said elbow and knee injuries are the most common injuries in the sport, 'but the number of injuries are quite small in comparison with the number of athletes. You cannot even compare it with football for example.'
A former judo wrestler from Oroszlany, Hungary, Baranyai was competing with the so-called B-group of lifters in the 77kg division.
Hungary's lone lifter in the Olympics, he was ninth in both the snatch and clean and jerk in the European Championship earlier this year and placed 33rd in last year's world championship.
He cleared his first snatch attempts at 140kg and 145kg before loading up the bar at 148kg - a relatively modest weight in top-level competition. The world record in the snatch is 173kg.
In the snatch, the bar is pulled overhead in one continuous motion as the lifter settles into a squat, then rises with arms extended.
Baranyai was in the squat position when his elbow popped.
