Kaitlyn Farrington, a gold-medal-winning snowboarder for the U.S. Olympic team, is retiring at age 25 because of a degenerative spine condition known as congenital cervical stenosis, writes Alyssa Roenigk for ESPN.
The team's physician, Tom Hackett, MD, said that it was "by the grace of God" that nothing more serious, or more fatal, happened to Ms. Farrington, given her disorder.
"Essentially, the canal formed by her vertebrae that the spinal cord runs through is too narrow in an area of Kaitlyn's spine. There is no room to allow for any movement of the spinal cord when the spine flexes and bends, to prevent the cord from getting kinked or pinched. In Kaitlyn's spine, there is no room for error," Dr. Hackett said.
After an injury in Austria left her temporarily numb from head to toe — and eventually resulted in Ms. Farrington needing an MRI — the team physician had to have a tough conversation with the Olympian, especially after knowing her for years.
"I had guarded expectations about what was going on until I saw her MRI," Dr. Hackett said. "When I saw the MRI, my heart sank. I knew it was over."
It was difficult to tell her that it was time to retire, at the prime of her career, the physician said.
"Kaitlyn knows what it was like to lie on the ground conscious and not be able to move," he said. "I reminded her what that felt like. I said, 'That's the risk. That's why you can't do this anymore.'"
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