The heartbreaks don’t stop! With the world’s top wrestling talents waiting to start their journey at the 2024 Paris Olympics, everyone is looking forward to tumultuous moments on the mat. And yet, fans in the US are hit with another saddening piece of news. While representing Serbia on the grand stage, Stevan Micic is widely popular in the country as a student-athlete of the Michigan Wolverines. The NCAA star was a favorite to win gold in the 57kg weight bracket, but the dream had to be shelved, at least for now.

In his Instagram post from a few hours ago, the 28-year-old dropped the bolt from the blue and fans are left reeling. “A few weeks ago, I suffered a knee injury during practice. As training for competition intensified, the injury worsened,” informed the Cedar Lake, Indiana resident. “These circumstances have broken me down completely,” admits the 2023 World Championships gold medalist, while also sharing that winning an Olympic gold is his lifelong dream.

Micic went on to elaborate that the latest snag has severely impacted his “ability to prepare at the highest level necessary to compete and achieve the results.” However, the ordeal doesn’t end just there, as the wrestler elaborates. “The doctors told me that if I want to continue wrestling, I must get reconstructive surgery,” wrote a brooding Stevan as he made it clear that withdrawing from the tournament is his only option.

Fortunately, Stevan isn’t going to halt his journey as a wrestler and instead is determined to bounce back from the setback stronger than ever. “I believe God has great plans for me going forward, and I need to take the proper steps with recovery,” said he, while thanking everyone who stood by him along the way.

While the Serbian would have been one of the biggest opponents that stood in the way of Iowa’s Spencer Lee at the Paris Games, the Wolverine star’s misfortune will justifiably result in several frowns across the country. Stevan’s popularity in the USA is immense and his presence on the big stage will not go unnoticed. However, he isn’t the first athlete who succumbed to troublesome injuries and had to abandon all hopes for golden glory.

Injuries galore at the 2024 Paris Olympics

Jamaica’s sprinting icon and five-time Olympian Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce also dropped out of the women’s 100m race at the last moment because of a hamstring injury she incurred while warming up for the event. The defending women’s 100m and 200m Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah also didn’t show up in the City of Love thanks to an Achilles tendon injury she suffered at the New York Grand Prix. Moreover, American gymnast Gabby Douglas’ plight also took her out of the 33rd Olympics after she failed to make it to the US Gymnastics Championships earlier this year.

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates’s son-in-law, the Egyptian equestrian star Nayel Nassar also had to forego his chances of bagging a medal in the French capital after his bovine partner hit a snag on the road. With a long way still to go on the banks of the iconic Seine River, it remains to be seen if injuries continues to play a pivotal role at the Paris Games, or if athletes brave through the pain for the final lap.