InkSpired Magazine Issue No. 43 | Page 40

Kate Monahan: In 2011, things were going well, and then you had an accident? Can you describe that? John Farrow: I had qualified for the Vancouver Olympics and just 7 days before our event, 2 athletes were removed from the start list, the competition was dropped from 30 to 28. I was one of those athletes. I was shattered from just missing out on an Olympic Games, however I turned that energy back into my training and decided to go even harder for the next Olympics. 2010 - 2011 was a great year and 2011 - 2012 season I came out firing and feeling amazing, my sliding was on point, my speeds were high, and my times were in the top 10 of the world. The crossover skills from downhill biking had carried over perfectly into skeleton and I was loving it. Two days before my 2011 season opener WC Race, I was training in Lake Placid, NY—not on an ice track, but a normal running track—running while training, I slipped and dislocated my left knee. It was bent inwards and I was going in and out of shock. The pain was ridiculous, I had no real clue what had happened but it felt like my leg was snapped off at the knee. Within the moments while waiting for the ambulance, I gave up. I couldn’t believe I was injured again. I decided I wanted to go home and get a damn normal job and stop chasing my dreams as it wasn’t worth it, the pain, the hard work, the uncertainty; I had enough. Once we got the scans back of the knee it showed I had a ruptured ACL, LCL, PCL, my hamstring was snapped from the bone, some more smaller muscles ruptured, my tibia fractured, and my leg nerves 38 InkSpiredMagazine.com