ACL tear symptoms include feeling or hearing a pop in the knee, swelling, pain when you try to put weight on the knee, weakness in the knee, and losing your knee’s range of motion, per the Cleveland Clinic.
Unfortunately, ACL injuries are not uncommon in athletes, especially female athletes. JuJu Watkins, Megan Rapinoe, Vonn, Brink, and many others have all suffered ACL tears in their careers. Data suggest that women have an “alarmingly higher rate” of ACL injuries compared to men.
How is it possible to compete with a torn ACL?
An ACL tear is usually a season-ending injury, according to Dr. Soppe. He says it’s “very surprising” that someone would be able to compete after tearing their ACL. “Usually patients have a hard time—or impossible time—skiing down a mountain or continuing to compete after an ACL tear,” Dr. Soppe says.
However, he stresses that every ACL injury is different. “Some patients have a very hard time walking on it right away and need crutches, while other patients can walk on it,” Dr. Soppe says. There are some patients that doctors refer to as “copers” who can tear an ACL and keep going, Timothy Miller, MD, orthopedic surgeon and sports medicine physician at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, tells SELF. This just isn’t common and “it’s hard to predict who those people are,” he says.
Still, “the average person is not going to be successful in returning to a type of sport like downhill skiing without an ACL intact,” John-Paul Rue, MD, an orthopedic and sports medicine surgeon at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore, tells SELF. “Nobody should take this as a thought that they could potentially complete a skiing season with a torn ACL.”
There is potential danger in skiing at the speeds Vonn can reach without an ACL. “If she has an instability episode, it can cause her to fall and do damage to the head, spine, and arms. That would be a really bad thing,” Leslie Bisson, MD, chair of orthopedics at the University at Buffalo Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, tells SELF.
Are there long-term implications of competing with a torn ACL?
Competing on a shredded ligament sounds risky for long-term knee health, but that’s not necessarily the case, Daniel Kaplan, MD, an orthopedic surgeon and sports medicine specialist at NYU Langone Health, tells SELF. “The ACL is not going to get any more torn than it’s already torn,” he says. “If it’s a rope, it’s cut in half.”
