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World Number One Brady Ellison Overcame a Career-Ending Finger Injury to Win a Medal at Tokyo Olympics 2020

Published 07/28/2021, 10:08 AM EDT

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Tokyo Olympics 2020 has been the most unpredictable game in the history of the Olympics. Over the years, we have seen Olympians winning medals after defeating diseases like cancer.

These players are no less than real-life fighters as their stories of struggles and hustle inspire many. The same is the story of world number one, USA’s archer Brady Ellison. Brady made a comeback from a finger injury that almost made him give up the sport.

While Ellison is the most successful archer in the history of archery in USA, he still has not been to clinch his Olympic gold. To date, he has won three Olympic medals.

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Brady has gone from almost giving up his career because of injury to entering Tokyo Olympics as world number one. At the Tokyo Olympics 2020, he had a splendid start, as he finished at the second position in the archery men’s ranking round.

Excruciating pain in finger after 2016 Rio Olympics

After the 2012 London Olympics, Brady had pain in his shooting finger. However, it went away after a while. But, after his medal-winning campaign at the 2016 Rio Olympics, the pain came back.

Every time Brady fired, his finger would have unbearable pain. The problem did not end until 2018, and he started getting affected mentally and physically. It drastically affected his practice as he went from shooting 2000 arrows in a week to 100.

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Ellison saw every doctor he could, went through MRIs and X-rays but couldn’t find any cure. After finishing at the 12th position in 2018, he almost gave up on his archery career.

An unorthodox treatment helped him to make a comeback at Tokyo Olympics 2020

Brady had made his mind to quit archery and take up a job at the mine, but his mother-in-law had one last idea for him. His wife hails from Slovenia and his mother-in-law told them about a bioenergeticist.

A bioenergeticist is a person who has the ability to heal people using energy. After researching, Brady found out success stories of the man healing paralyzed people. Ellison had lost all hopes for any cure but still gave it a shot one last time.

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Post three sessions with the bioenergeticist, American fired facing no pain. Ellison eventually won the bronze medal at the next world cup, and his life changed. The man even solved the archer’s old Achilles tendon injury.

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Brady even suffered from a Legg-calve-Perthes disease since he was a child, and had to wear leg braces for a while, but never gave up. It has been a roller coaster journey for Brady Ellison, who never lost hope.

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Now, American archery star is back to the games at the Tokyo Olympics 2020. Till now he could not secure medals in the team events, however, he is going strong in individual elimination rounds. Brady is in his formidable form with a top-ranking and will aim for his Olympic gold medal at Tokyo.

Tokyo Olympics 2020: Seeding Results for Men’s and Women’s Archery

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Written by:

Shreya Verma

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Shreya Verma is an NBA and Tennis Author at EssentiallySports. A graduate of Political Science, Shreya comes from a strong sports background. A professional 10m air pistol shooter, Shreya is also a tennis enthusiast.
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