In a recent Instagram post, Tamara Gorman revealed that she suffered a broken sacrum towards the end of 2022.
The American had been struggling with what she thought was a hamstring issue, particularly around the Tongyeong World Cup in October. This came after hamstring trouble plagued her earlier in the year.
As per Gorman’s post:
“My right side tightened up days after the race in South Korea. I thought my hamstring injury was coming back again, same symptoms. I started getting treatment on the tight areas. I was pushing until my next race, cut out a lot of the harder workouts. Pushed through to Chile (last World Cup of 2022). I needed to keep pushing. I thought the treatment on the tightness from the hamstring injury coming back would allow me to push. Come to find out it wasn’t my hamstring the entire time.”
It later transpired that she had actually experienced a complete break of the sacrum.
Fractures or breaks to the sacrum can be tricky injuries to heal. The bone itself can recover within 6-12 weeks in the absence of complications. However, given its position in the body, any injury to the sacrum essentially forces an athlete to hit a total reset.
As a result, Gorman will need some time before she is able to embark upon her return to elite racing.
In 2013, she won the World Junior Championships in London, while the following year she made her WTCS debut in Hamburg at the age of 18. That day, she finished a respectable 29th. Later, in 2017, she became the World U23 champion on the back of a sparkling performance.
Gorman has thus been a prospect for years now. Moreover, at the Senior level she achieved top-10 finishes at WTCS Yokohama and Leeds in 2019 (9th in Yokohama and 10th in Leeds).
One thing that came out of Gorman’s post was that she kept pushing through her injury. In many respects, this resembles the experience of Kenji Nener last season as he too pushed through the pain barrier, to his own detriment.
This may be something inherent in the mentality of elite triathletes. The sport is so tough that it invites athletes to train through issues when they perhaps should not. The drive that propels them to such heights can also be a drawback in its own right.
Injury is a risk to all and befalls almost all athletes at some point in their career. However, Gorman has had a particularly rough run with injuries in the past few years. Likewise, a broken sacrum will be a challenge to return from.
With that in mind, it is pertinent to note the example of Flora Duffy.
As a Junior, Duffy had similar successes to Gorman (indeed Gorman may have even been the more precocious talent). Duffy, though, then endured a series of lean years and her early 20s were not filled with success. She even stepped away from the sport for a spell.
Once she returned, she only really became a feature at the front of the WTCS field in 2015. Furthermore, it wasn’t until 2016, shortly before turning 29, that Duffy won her first world title.
For Gorman and other athletes in similar situations, then, sometimes the best thing to do is to step back and recover both physically and mentally. We might see her race this year. We might not. Either way, the talent of yesteryear will still be there upon return.
Gorman is turning 27 soon and so is young in the sport.
The light at the end of the tunnel might therefore be that her best days may still be ahead.
