Germany’s Sophie Weissenberg suffered a horrifying injury Thursday during warmups for her first heptathlon event, and she was pushed off the track in a wheelchair after collapsing in pain with her 2024 Olympics debut over before it ever officially began.
After clearing one hurdle at Stade de France, Weissenberg appeared to clip the second, regain her footing and then continue before slowing ahead of the next hurdle — barely making it over while falling to the ground and apparently realizing the severity of her injury.
The German outlet Deutsche Presse-Agentur reported that Weissenberg tore her Achilles.
A group of seven people surrounded the 26-year-old — ranked No. 9 in the world for the women’s heptathlon — and eventually got her into a wheelchair, and Weissenberg was moved off the track while covering her face with both hands, according to photos capturing the scene.
Weissenberg was already listed with a “did not start” next to her name following the 100-meter hurdles heat, which was the first event before the high jump, shot put, 200-meter dash, long jump, javelin throw and 800-meter dash, all to follow Thursday and Friday.
Before the injury in warmups, Weissenberg celebrated her first appearance in the Summer Games by writing in an Instagram post, “olympic debut tomorrow,” before adding a cat with a wry smile emoji.
She finished seventh in the 2023 World Championships — propelled by a first-place finish in the high jump, fourth-place finish in the 200-meters and fifth-place finish in the javelin throw — and earned a silver medal in the European U23 Championships in 2019.
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Great Britain’s Katarina Johnson-Thompson, who won the World Championships in 2023 and entered the Olympics at No. 2 in the world rankings, led the heptathlon after the 100-meter hurdles and long jump, with Belgium’s Nafissatou Thiam in second.
It would mark the first medal at the Olympics for Johnson-Thompson, with her first appearance in the international event occurring during the 2012 Summer Games in London.
Great Britain’s Jessica Ennis won the gold medal that year, followed by Thiam in the past two Olympics.
But Weissenberg won’t have a chance to clinch Germany’s first gold medal in the heptathlon — or even the country’s first medal in the event since Lilli Schwarzkopf took silver in 2012.
