WARNING: This video contains graphic content.
An American gymnast from Auburn University had to be carted out in a stretcher from a regional gymnastics event, after suffering a horrific leg injury during a routine.
On Saturday (NZ time), Samantha Cerio landed awkwardly, when she attempted a double-front with a blind landing on her first tumbling pass at the Baton Rouge Regionals in Louisiana.
Trainers and medical staff tended to Cerio for a long period, before she was taken away on a stretcher.
While Auburn didn't provide an injury update, it's been reported that Cerio dislocated both her knees, as well as breaking both legs.
"It was pretty tough to watch," Auburn coach Jeff Graba told the Times-Picayune newspaper.
"She's a trooper. The last thing she said was, 'Go help the girls'. The girls rallied around her.
"They're doing this for her right now."
After she was taken away, her team supported her with the hashtag #stickitforsam.
Cerio has since said she would retire from gymnastics.
"Friday night was my final night as a gymnast," she said. "After 18 years, I am hanging up my grips and leaving the chalk behind.
"I couldn't be prouder of the person that gymnastics has made me become. It's taught me hard work, humility, integrity and dedication, just to name a few.
"It's given me challenges and road blocks that I would have never imagined that have tested who I am as a person.
"It may not have ended the way I had planned, but nothing ever goes as planned."
Auburn went onto the regional gymnastics final, but they finished fourth, which brings an end to their season.
Newshub.
