Veronica Carlson shows amazing resolve, toughness in winning U.S. Open match with broken arm
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by Craig Sesker USA Wrestling
Veronica Carlson turned in a courageous performance to place third at the U.S. Open in Las Vegas. Tony Rotundo photos.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Veronica Carlson is regarded as one of the toughest, most hard-nosed wrestlers on the planet.
The powerful and chiseled Carlson has battled back from a broken ankle, a broken wrist, a stress fracture and torn knee ligaments during her career.
But Carlson, a 2013 World Team member in women’s freestyle wrestling, had never been faced with a situation quite like this.
Carlson built a 10-2 lead over past Junior World Team member Kayla Aggio in her U.S. Open third-place match on May 9 at the South Point Arena in Las Vegas.
With two minutes left in the match at 69 kg/152 lbs., the wrestlers were side-by-side in the neutral position. Aggio was fighting to gain control and Carlson’s right arm got trapped in an awkward position.
The match was quickly stopped as Carlson was in severe pain.
“I heard it snap in three places,” Carlson said of her right arm. “It was just crazy. I was screaming in pain and pounding my fist on the mat.”
Medical staff quickly came onto the mat.
“When it first happened, I thought there was no way I could continue. I knew my arm was broken,” Carlson said. “I knew it was really bad. I told the trainers that I thought it was broken, and they asked if I could move it and I could actually move it. My arm was hanging at a weird angle, but I could move my fingers.
“When I got on my feet, I looked at the score and looked at the clock. I just had something in me that said I can’t let her win and I can’t walk away from this.”
Carlson asked the trainers to tape up her badly damaged arm. And she elected to continue wrestling.
“I felt like the injury couldn’t get any worse,” she said. “It was my call. I decided to keep wrestling.”
The match resumed, and Aggio mounted a comeback, but Carlson gutted it out to earn a gritty 10-8 victory.
“I was in a lot of pain,” she said. “It was excruciating. I was bawling through the entire last two minutes of the match. It was terrible.”
Carlson’s suspicions were confirmed that night when she went to a Las Vegas hospital to have the injury examined further.
“I tore the tendons right off the bone and I tore the radial collateral ligament at the elbow,” she said. “When all of the tendons tore, all of the muscles snapped and balled up in my arm. My arm looked deformed, and looked really gross and terrible.
“I also suffered a fracture at the tip of the humerus bone in my arm.”
There wasn’t much humorous about the injury Carlson suffered.
“When I went to the hospital, they asked me how painful it was on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the most painful,” Carlson said. “I said it was about a 9 – I ranked it just below childbirth. (Greco-Roman Olympian) Ben Provisor had the same injury and he told me he had no idea how I wrestled with it.”
Carlson was in a tough U.S. Open bracket at 69 kilos that included World champion Elena Pirozhkova and Olympic bronze medalist Randi Miller. The third-seeded Carlson dropped a 5-0 decision to eventual champion Pirozhkova in the semifinals.
“That was a tough loss to Elena,” Carlson said. “Obviously, I wanted to come back even harder after that match. I wasn’t going to get bumped down to fourth.”
Carlson underwent successful surgery on Monday afternoon in Colorado Springs. She said surgeons reattached tendons to the bone and reattached the ligament in her right arm.
“Going through the end of that last match was really hard,” she said. “Obviously, I wish the injury didn’t happen, but I’m glad I got the opportunity to show what I was made of. By wrestling, I didn’t do any further damage to my arm. Nothing could have made it worse. I think I made the right decision to keep wrestling. I was aware of my body and what I could handle. The biggest obstacle was the pain.
“A lot of people have been really supportive of what I did. It’s been awesome to see that kind of support.”
Carlson said doctors have told her that her recovery period will be approximately 4-6 months before she can return to the mat.
“I’m hoping to return in time to have an opportunity to make the 2016 Olympic Team,” she said. “I do have some time to make it back before the Olympic Trials next year. I’m planning on being back.”
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Veronica Carlson is regarded as one of the toughest, most hard-nosed wrestlers on the planet.
The powerful and chiseled Carlson has battled back from a broken ankle, a broken wrist, a stress fracture and torn knee ligaments during her career.
But Carlson, a 2013 World Team member in women’s freestyle wrestling, had never been faced with a situation quite like this.
Carlson built a 10-2 lead over past Junior World Team member Kayla Aggio in her U.S. Open third-place match on May 9 at the South Point Arena in Las Vegas.
With two minutes left in the match at 69 kg/152 lbs., the wrestlers were side-by-side in the neutral position. Aggio was fighting to gain control and Carlson’s right arm got trapped in an awkward position.
The match was quickly stopped as Carlson was in severe pain.
“I heard it snap in three places,” Carlson said of her right arm. “It was just crazy. I was screaming in pain and pounding my fist on the mat.”
Medical staff quickly came onto the mat.
“When it first happened, I thought there was no way I could continue. I knew my arm was broken,” Carlson said. “I knew it was really bad. I told the trainers that I thought it was broken, and they asked if I could move it and I could actually move it. My arm was hanging at a weird angle, but I could move my fingers.
“When I got on my feet, I looked at the score and looked at the clock. I just had something in me that said I can’t let her win and I can’t walk away from this.”
Carlson asked the trainers to tape up her badly damaged arm. And she elected to continue wrestling.
“I felt like the injury couldn’t get any worse,” she said. “It was my call. I decided to keep wrestling.”
The match resumed, and Aggio mounted a comeback, but Carlson gutted it out to earn a gritty 10-8 victory.
“I was in a lot of pain,” she said. “It was excruciating. I was bawling through the entire last two minutes of the match. It was terrible.”
Carlson’s suspicions were confirmed that night when she went to a Las Vegas hospital to have the injury examined further.
“I tore the tendons right off the bone and I tore the radial collateral ligament at the elbow,” she said. “When all of the tendons tore, all of the muscles snapped and balled up in my arm. My arm looked deformed, and looked really gross and terrible.
“I also suffered a fracture at the tip of the humerus bone in my arm.”
There wasn’t much humorous about the injury Carlson suffered.
“When I went to the hospital, they asked me how painful it was on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the most painful,” Carlson said. “I said it was about a 9 – I ranked it just below childbirth. (Greco-Roman Olympian) Ben Provisor had the same injury and he told me he had no idea how I wrestled with it.”
Carlson was in a tough U.S. Open bracket at 69 kilos that included World champion Elena Pirozhkova and Olympic bronze medalist Randi Miller. The third-seeded Carlson dropped a 5-0 decision to eventual champion Pirozhkova in the semifinals.
“That was a tough loss to Elena,” Carlson said. “Obviously, I wanted to come back even harder after that match. I wasn’t going to get bumped down to fourth.”
Carlson underwent successful surgery on Monday afternoon in Colorado Springs. She said surgeons reattached tendons to the bone and reattached the ligament in her right arm.
“Going through the end of that last match was really hard,” she said. “Obviously, I wish the injury didn’t happen, but I’m glad I got the opportunity to show what I was made of. By wrestling, I didn’t do any further damage to my arm. Nothing could have made it worse. I think I made the right decision to keep wrestling. I was aware of my body and what I could handle. The biggest obstacle was the pain.
“A lot of people have been really supportive of what I did. It’s been awesome to see that kind of support.”
Carlson said doctors have told her that her recovery period will be approximately 4-6 months before she can return to the mat.
“I’m hoping to return in time to have an opportunity to make the 2016 Olympic Team,” she said. “I do have some time to make it back before the Olympic Trials next year. I’m planning on being back.”
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