Last night, powerlifter Blaine Sumner experienced what many lifters would describe as one of their worst nightmares. Sumner, who was lifting in prep for the IPF World Open Powerlifting Championships, had a squat mishap and was lifting alone in his home gym.
On his Instagram page, Sumner shared a video that was highlighting what’s for him a routine 464kg/1,025 lb squat. In fact, most fans and athletes watching were probably not expecting at all what came next. To paint the scene, after the ascent of the squat, Sumner was walking the weight in when missed his rack on the left side, and was forced to dump the weight.
This dumping of the weight — since it was a forward miss — ended up catching Sumner’s left forearm on a left part of the rack with the barbell crashing downward. After about a 1-2 second span of falling forward into the rack, the weight and rack dumped forward and took the rack with it, along with part of Sumner’s forearm. We’ll be embedding the video below, but be warned, it is very graphic and we highly advise watching with caution.
Note, Sumner is a professional at what he does, but this video is a reminder that sometimes having spotters to assist for occasions like this are never a bad idea. In Sumner’s Instagram video’s description he writes,
“Not what I needed in the heat of my prep for Worlds in 8 weeks. It’s been a rough few years battling the back and hip injuries and now crashing with 1,025 pounds and slicing my wrist open. I’m incredibly fortunate that this is the worst of what happened. A different bounce and I’d be looking at a totally different future. It’s a set back getting ready for Worlds but I refuse to let it stop me. I’ll find a way and put fear out of mind and get under the bar again soon.”
Author’s Note: The video of Sumner’s squat mishap is embedded below. This video is graphic in nature and we advise watching it with caution. For those having trouble viewing it on mobile — visit here!
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bnm2RvaAk23/
Now, Sumner is no stranger to moving heavy weight in Instagram videos and currently holds the IPF Open Equipped Squat World Record with his massive 500kg/1,102 lb lift from the 2017 Arnold Classic, so this was certainly unexpected.
We’re wishing him all the best and a speedy recovery.
Feature image from @thevanillagorilla92 Instagram page.