Exemplary trauma rehabilitation: Balanche fights back with high-tech medicine

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They are the toughest dogs in the cycling circus: the downhill mountain bikers. The riders plunge down the mountain slopes at insane speeds on constructed paths and overcome obstacles such as rocks, roots or specially built-in jumps.

It was precisely after such a jump that Switzerland’s best downhiller, Camille Balanche (33), suffered a heavy fall during the World Cup in Andorra at the end of August. The mistake was not a driving error, but a gust of wind that caught the 2020 world champion after the jump. Balanche was taken away by helicopter; the worst was feared. But miraculously she was spared any complicated fractures.

The invisible injury

So everything is fine? Are you kidding, are you serious when you say that? Although the Neuchâtel resident looks healthy just a few weeks after the fall, she has a long comeback ahead of her. The collision left Balanche with a traumatic brain injury, despite wearing a full-face helmet. And while concussions and more serious trauma are sometimes still treated very laxly in top sport, the downhiller takes her invisible injury very seriously.

On Instagram she shares insights about the past few weeks. The motorcyclist still has no memories of the accident or the five days that followed. She spent the time after the accident in a clinic in her home country that specialized in neurological rehabilitation. And that paid off. “All neurological tests look good. Now I can intensify the training a bit and see how my head reacts,” the downhill world champion recently wrote under a photo of her with various cables and electrodes on her head.

Exemplary rehabilitation

Wishes to get better are piled up under the mail. Camille Balanche also receives praise for the way she dealt with the head injury. “It is good to see that you are turning to specialists and getting tested properly,” writes three-time mountain biking world champion Anneke Beerten (41). She is a role model for all other athletes, said another comment. If the healing process of the woman from Neuchâtel continues to go as planned, she can be expected to return to her old strength at the World Cup next season.

Source : Blick