An aspiring Olympic gymnast works to overcome an ACL injury to qualify for the 2008 summer games in Beijing

By Lauren Fritsky

It happens in less than eight seconds.

Arms pumping, gymnast Justin Spring bounds down the runway toward the vault. He hits the springboard with a thud, and his agile body flips while twisting 1,080 degrees over the apparatus. He descends to the blue mat, where he plans to stick the landing and lift his chest and arms in a customary, finishing flourish.

But that's not what happens.

Instead, Spring lands awkwardly on his right leg. His knee buckles, then gives out. He rolls over his side and curls up on the mat, grabbing his injured knee to his chest as he rocks back and forth. The crowd coos its "oohs" of shock as Spring throws his head back in anguish.

Soon, Spring will find out that he hurt his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), and with it, his chances of qualifying for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. The Internet-circulated video documenting his massive miscalculation of the tricky vault pass at the 2007 Visa National Gymnastics Championships in San Jose, CA drives that point home over and over.

But 23-year-old Spring, an assistant gymnastics' coach at his alma mater, the University of Illinois, refuses to let the injury stop him. Combining a hardcore attitude with hardcore training and physical therapy, Spring plans to recover in time to contend for an all-around title at the Olympic trials, which take place in Philadelphia in June, and represent the United States at the Olympics.

"The ultimate goal is to be able to be comfortably tumbling and vaulting again," he said during an interview with ADVANCE. "I'm still, from what I hear, about two, two-and-a-half months out from that. For now, getting stable and being able to fully work the other four events — pommel horse, parallel bar, rings and high bar — is the immediate goal."

A Stranger to Insecurity, But Not to Injury

Considered one of the best U.S. gymnasts in four of six events, Spring pegged himself a shoo-in to make the six-member Olympic team for the first time in his career prior to his ACL injury. He began gymnastics before he entered kindergarten and quickly became a stellar competitor. A four-time National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Champion, four-time U.S. Senior National Team member and two-time World Championships team member, his collegiate career culminated in his earning the 2006 Nissen-Emery Award, an honor that goes to the top senior male gymnast in the nation.

Post-college, Spring garnered second on high bar at the 2007 World Cup meet in Moscow, and first on parallel bars at the 2007 U.S. Pan American Games, which helped the U.S. bring home its first gold medal at the Games in 16 years, and helped lead the U.S. to a bronze medal finish at the Games hosted in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

At the 2007 Visa championship, Spring collected his second U.S. title on high bar and a silver medal on floor exercise, though his injury kept him out of contention for his third selection to the World Championships team. In addition to being an awesome athlete, Spring is also an adventurous one—he was one of the world's only gymnasts to ever try the vault that led to his injury.

In late August, Spring underwent reconstructive surgery on his ACL, his fourth major operation in 11 months. Prior to that, he'd suffered shoulder and ankle injuries. The combination of setbacks took some toll on his outlook.

"It's not been good. In that time, I was actually able to get healthy off the shoulder and two ankle surgeries and compete at PanAms and did very well out there and then was hoping for big things at the championships and was having a good day—and the knee thing happens," he said. "It's been a very frustrating year-and-a-half."

Doctors told Spring to "take it easy" for three to four months. But waiting that long to begin training again meant that Spring might not be prepared for his upcoming qualifying competitions.

So, the determined dynamo headed back to the gym for a taxing three-month training program organized by coach Jon Valdez and men's national team coordinator Ron Brandt that involves twice-a-day workouts with strength exercises. Spring couples that with physical therapy several times a week. His return to that level of activity means that the chances for re-injury are great—he must be careful not to fall off equipment or land too harshly.

"I'm swinging a lot of pommel horse, because that's low, and kind of low-risk, and parallel bars, and even rings, for that matter," Spring explained. "I'm able to do quite a bit. I can hop down, I can take about a foot, foot-and-a-half drop. On high bar, unfortunately, because of the risk of falling with release moves, I'm not able to do much at all."

No TLC in his PT

As he did during his previous injuries, Spring turned to St. Vincent's Sports Performance Center, in particular, athletic trainer Ralph Reiff, as part of his rehab. He also visits University of Illinois athletic trainer Randy Ballard, who specializes in soft-tissue rehabilitation. Part of that therapy involves lessening scar tissue and increasing range of motion by scraping around Spring's knee with a metal instrument the gymnast likens to a "medieval torture device."

Spring's physical therapy is handled by Kim Hardin, PT, ATC, of Carle Clinic Association, which started addressing his post-operative care two days after surgery. Some tendonitis in Spring's knee initially stalled the PT.

"As is typical with a patella tendon graft ACL reconstruction, therapy was initially concerned with post-operative swelling control, restoration of full ROM, excellent VMO and quad control, scar management and achieving normal gait," Hardin explained. "We then moved onto strengthening and higher level proprioceptive activities. The strengthening was largely closed chain, as Justin developed some early tendonitis in the patella tendon that we addressed with appropriate rest and modalities."

Hardin plans to incorporate all levels of isometric, isotonic and isokinetic principles into Spring's rehab. Aquatic therapy early on increased his cardiovascular endurance and initiated his jump training while putting less stress on his tendon and graft before Hardin started land-based rehab. In December, she implemented a heavy plyometrics phase to address proper hip, knee and ankle alignment and emphasize both explosive concentric power, the stuff that gives height to a gymnast's jump, and eccentric power, which lends the decelerating control required by Spring's knee when he must land a dismount from 8-to-10 feet in the air, or finish a tumbling pass at top speed. Hardin planned to initiate some isokinetic work in January to improve Spring's specificity of training and check any strength issues.

"We usually meet formally twice a week for an hour to an hour and a half, but I have had him come in at other times to receive aquatic instruction for treadmill and initial plyometric work with our aquatics team and to work out on his own two or three days a week in our fitness center when he is not working with me," Hardin said. "He has separate workouts daily with his coach to address upper body and core work, and I have attended a few sessions with him at the gym to watch his current workout, as well as observe other athletes to break down the biomechanical stresses and needs of a gymnast."

Forward Bound

As time goes on, Spring's rehab program will focus less on traditional strength training routines and more on functional activity specific to men's gymnastics. He next competes in February at the Winter Cup Challenge in Las Vegas, where gymnasts get National Team spots. While he'll skip the floor and vault competitions, Spring plans to enter the pommel horse, parallel bars and rings events.

After that event, Hardin will initiate work on more demanding dismounts and the explosive lower-body components of floor, vault and landing from the horizontal bar. She expects Spring to do well with all phases of his rehab.

"Although we got off to a little bit of a slow start, he is progressing very well with his rehabilitation now," she said. "As with most high-caliber athletes, Justin knows that injury and rehabilitation are a part of training and operating at the highest level of his sport. His competitive nature drives him toward proper execution of every exercise, and he has a very good work ethic."

With the help of his therapists, trainers, coaches and his own determination and dedication, Spring hopes to make his greatest comeback from injury yet.

"I know what to expect, and that's how we took it this time," he said. "I've done more strength training, and I think I'm going to be so much more prepared on my other four events than I ever have in my entire life. So, we try to take it as positively as we can. I think I am really going to come back."

Lauren Fritsky is assistant editor at ADVANCE and can be reached at lfritsky@merion.com.