Cyclist breaks spine in Moscow race, walks two weeks later

On 6 December, during a cycling race in Krylatskoye, Elena Kozheurova fell and broke her spine. On social media, the woman jokes about the collision itself, the hospital, and shares plans to return to sports as soon as possible. Recently, the Muscovite was discharged, and she immediately went to the track — for now, just to watch from the sidelines.

MSK1.RU spoke with Elena about how the tragedy happened, how she plans to return to racing after the injury, and what unexpected support she received.

— How did you get into cycling?

My husband is a professional motorcycle racer, a champion of Russia, a master of sports. At the end of 2022, a friend suggested he add cycling for training in the off-season. He chose an amateur team at the velodrome in Krylatskoye and started training on a stationary bike. One day he took me with him, and I couldn«t stop.

I was that classmate who, in every physical education lesson, had all body parts fail, had a side ache, headache, heart pain, blood pressure drop, nothing worked, and I always found a reason to skip any physical activity. In university, it was the same, in adult life — a couple of attempts to go to the gym, but discipline, work, patience and I were incompatible things.

— How did cycling races come about then?

Some magic happened with the bicycle. First, we just trained on the trainer, went to road training camps, then moved to Matvey Zubov«s team — started trying to ride on the track and even participate in competitions. I watch videos and die laughing now.

But the main thing is that at that moment I felt happy and knew it was the beginning of something. Matvey is a world and European champion, and under his guidance, races slowly entered my life. Like any other sport, cycling is colossal work with oneself, with the capabilities of one«s body, with character. This discipline, perseverance, and unreal pleasure. I also like that in a cycling race, you can always sit down! Can you sit down while running? Or in the pool? Or when climbing a rock? Exactly.

— What happened on 6 December?

Always a day or two before a race, I get a little sick. A slight temperature, runny nose, sore throat — it«s about nerves. But here I really had a bad feeling… The day before, I watched a bunch of videos with falls, as if on purpose they came up. Plus, I overdid it with training and came to the race in sluggish form, didn»t want to go at all. Right at the start, I asked the coach to excuse me.

I got into this pile-up because I shouldn«t have been in this place on the last lap! The race was very dynamic, interesting, which is rare for amateur women»s races. Professional athletes were riding with us. I tried to do something three and two laps before the finish, but I just didn«t have enough strength, so I was practically trailing at the end.

— Was it scary?

I saw that the riders had already started falling, and I tried to move up, but I was a bit short. The speed was high, and I was very close on the wheel of a competitor. It«s all fractions of a second, but in the moment — slow motion, in which you manage to understand what»s happening.

I held the handlebars until the last moment in hope of slipping through, but the bicycle was literally torn out from under me. I jumped up, landed on my tailbone, bounced, and rolled upside down from the very top of the track. I immediately understood it was serious because I was lying and couldn«t move, sharp pain in my back didn»t give me a chance to stop screaming. It was wildly painful and scary. But I wiggled my legs, which meant nothing was pinched and there was a chance to get off with a light scare.

All the girls got up and left, but me, injected with painkillers, was placed on a stretcher and taken to the ambulance.

— Jokes on social media in such a situation — why?

In general, my typical content is built on humor, self-irony, and some light, carefree vibe. So, there was no idea to suddenly start suffering for real.

From the footage of the fall, Elena edited an ironic reel, and in the ward, she continued shooting such videos. Sometimes she jokes about returning from a rave, sometimes she arranges «races» on a walker.

In the hospital, unfortunately, you can«t really speed up. I tried in the first days to race a bit, yes, but I believed in myself too much, overdid it, and therefore lay down for a long time afterwards. I got up two to four times for exercise for 10-15 minutes, a couple of times for household chores, and that»s it. The rest of the time I lay down, read, edited videos, answered followers, watched movies, sometimes got sad and cried, but that«s rare.

— In what condition are you, what are the doctors« prognoses?

I was very lucky because the fracture doesn«t require surgery, nothing shifted, moved away, or got pinched. Rehabilitation is long, several months. For the first month and a half, you definitely can»t sit. Only horizontal position on a hard surface. You can get up and walk only in a corset until the first fatigue or pain, you need to do therapeutic exercises and slowly return to life. It hurts permanently, for now I«ll have to live with painkillers.

I know stories where after serious injuries, people not only returned to their previous form but made such an upgrade that it«s hard to believe. Maybe it»s too presumptuous, but my plan is exactly that.

Assessing the situation, discussing everything with doctors and my husband, I know for sure that I will be ready for spring training camps. And I«ll even have time for the selection for the amateur world championship and will definitely go there! Don»t be afraid of anything, set broad goals. Pain is temporary, and everything passes, the main thing is to want and believe.

— How do your followers react to what happened?

From the amount of support, I just can«t comprehend if this is reality or a dream. First and foremost, my family helps, my husband, who is with me in the hospital every day and plans to be my rehabilitation therapist with the support of specialists. My friends, team, comrades, acquaintances, followers… In a week, I received several thousand messages, it»s some kind of madness.

I still haven«t answered everyone, but I will definitely do so, because every person, whether they know me or I know them, took the time to support me. It»s insanely pleasant and very inspiring.

Many write to me that with my attitude towards the problem, I inspire them. I am sure that a huge percentage of success is mindset. You must definitely look into the future: clearly imagine what life should be like after recovery. Don«t focus on today»s limitations, but strongly want and visualize possibilities.

I already had experience with similar «inspiring people.» I have vitiligo (white spots on the skin), and in childhood, I was very complexed about it, I was bullied in school. Already in adulthood, I coped with the problem, and at some point, I wrote a post about it on social media. I received an incredibly huge response, about 10,000 people subscribed to me, and I, telling them about my experience, inadvertently became their motivator, so to speak.

I supported as best I could, and it gave an amazing result in the form of hundreds of stories about how they stopped being ashamed of their illness. I finished blogging on this topic a couple of years ago, but when I ended up in the hospital with my trouble, these people showered me with a wave of warm words and support. The story seems to repeat itself.

Earlier, MSK1.RU told the story of motorcyclist Yekaterina Kolpakova, who became the champion of Russia. The girl admitted that she didn«t even think to what heights her love for motorcycles would lead her.