Sergei Naidin has been having the craziest experience at the Youth Olympics, both good and bad. He won silver in the all-around. Then, he was accidentally withdrawn from floor and pommel horse final due to a mistake in the forms. Then, after being put back in the finals, his floor difficulty has been miscalculated but he wasn’t able to submit the inquiry in time. This led to him winning bronze on floor instead of gold. He proceeded to win silver on pommel horse and gold on parallel bars. However, he’s been experiencing back and shoulder pain throughout the competition and on the dismount from parallel bars, his pain became unbearable and he had to scratch from the high bar final. Naidin was carried away from the arena on a stretcher and couldn’t be present for the medal ceremony.
His coach, Sergei Stepanenko commented on the injury:
“Sergei got a pinched nerve in his back. The pain radiated to the leg as well, even to his heel. He will get an MRI. It seems like it’s not very serious. He’s able to move his legs, his health isn’t in danger, but he’s experiencing pain that doesn’t allow him to continue competing today. In addition, there’s a risk to further injure the back on a dismount”.
