Athletics, Finley Gaio; Decathlete for the European Indoor Championships after a horror accident in the pole vault

They were images that you won’t forget that quickly – and which may also repeatedly cause anxiety, just as you would have to experience them first-hand.

And yet: Finley Gaio has actually overcome his highly traumatic experience. More than that: His bad training accident has even driven the all-around talent from Switzerland to new heights – and now Gaio has even rewarded him with qualifying for a European championship for the first time.

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When the indoor European championship rises in Torun, Poland from Thursday to Sunday (March 4th to 7th), the 21-year-old will surely think back to it in a quiet moment, only by a hair’s breadth of being disabled or even worse be.

Flashback, November 2020, in Magglingen, a small town in the Bernese Seeland with less than 1,000 souls: Gaio is doing pole vault training, business as usal for the athletics all-rounder.

Pole vault: Finley Gaio with fatal accident

The son of an Italian and an American runs off in the usual manner with a raised staff, speeds up – and notices that the attempt is not a good one.

So the muscular blond boy with the tattoo on his right forearm breaks off and throws his work tool forward.

But the stick does not fall flat on the floor, but sticks in the puncture box, remains inclined upwards – and fatally bores into the face of Gaio, who is at full speed and can no longer react and slow down.

The consequences are devastating: the rod tears a large hole in the lower half of the face, smashes the jaw and teeth, and blood flows freely.

Smashed jaw, broken teeth

“My upper and lower jaw were broken,” said the Swiss youngster recently in the Look. “Three teeth were dented, one was knocked out completely. And my lip was cut.”

Gaio’s luck during the horror accident that the staff didn’t catch him further up and thus cost him his eyesight – or maybe even fatal at the bottom of his neck.

Jump coach Nicola Gentsch and training colleague Simon Ehammer immediately notify the ambulance and the ambulance. “When I realized what happened, it was very intense,” said Ehammer, looking back. “To see your team-mate like that is brutal.”

“I was worried because he was losing so much blood,” explained Gentsch, who also witnessed how Gaio was brought to a hospital in Bern for first aid, where his lip was sewn together and his jaw straightened.

Many tears during the period of suffering

A long period of suffering followed, Gaio experienced hard “first days”, as he describes it himself: “I was in pain, could only sleep a little, I was not feeling well. I shed many tears. Because I still knew that a lot of pain coming my way and that I won’t be able to do any sport for a long time. A horror idea for me. “

What is particularly stressful: The youngster can only consume liquid food for the first two or three weeks: “Always soup, I almost went nuts. I lost about eight kilos.”

But the youngster pushes the gloomy thoughts aside, continues his rehab and can soon actually resume all-around training: “The doctors gave the okay that I could start with a slow build-up. Fortunately, it went faster than me thought. “

Impressive: The fear of another accident only has a relatively short effect in the course of recovery and comeback attempts. “If I try to do badly, I will certainly never throw the stick away again,” said Gaio, drawing his lessons from the incident.

Like his coach Gentsch: “For the first few days the pictures followed me. When I fell asleep, I saw them in front of me.” Team-mate Ehammer even felt guilty at times: “Nicola and I had to discuss the accident again in detail. We asked ourselves whether we could have done something differently. But there was nothing.”

Finley Gaio fulfills dream with indoor European Championship debut

And so Gaio soon picked up the baton professionally again.

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More than that: the Swiss recently became Swiss indoor champion over the 60 m hurdles (7.81 seconds), and that in a personal best time – to now make his unexpected European Championship debut in Poland.

“I want to enjoy being there again. And I also want to set a new personal best,” said Gaio hopefully.

But his participation in the continental indoor competitions should be enough happy ending for him after the drama with the baton.

“What can I say … Three months ago I was in the hospital with a broken jaw, broken nose and broken lip (…)”, Gaio posted on Instagram a few days ago. “I’m speechless. I can’t thank everyone who supported me on the way back. A big thank you to my family, friends and girlfriend! Without you I wouldn’t have made it!”

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