Erin Shaw undergoes spinal fusion after 135-kilogram gym accident
erin shaw underwent spinal fusion surgery after a December gym accident left her lower back badly damaged, and the Australian high jumper spent two months in a brace afterward. Surgeons first offered a conservative path that meant three months in a brace, but they warned it would bring a much longer recovery and likely end her high jump career.
Shaw’s December accident
Shaw was doing Bulgarian split squats just before Christmas with 135 kilograms on the bar when she stumbled and hit the floor with a thud. She lay there for 45 minutes waiting for an ambulance, with her strength and conditioning coach beside her.
Her first thought was simple: whether she would be able to jump again. She said, “I was kind of like, 'OK, next option'” when the surgery route became the choice in front of her.
Recovery after spinal fusion
The pain arrived fast and spread through her body. “It felt like a huge kind of seizing of your whole back and body,” Shaw said. “It got to a point where my back was cramping so much that I felt like I couldn't breathe, because the diaphragm moves. So it was quite painful.”
Even then, she could still feel her feet and move. “I could feel my feet and move and stuff, which was really good,” she said. That detail mattered in the immediate aftermath, but the damage to her lower back was still severe enough to require surgery.
Sydney Olympic Park
Shaw wanted to be at the national athletics championships at Sydney Olympic Park on April 10, competing in a field headlined by reigning world champion Nicola Olyslagers and former world champion Eleanor Patterson. Instead, she was talking about recovery at a cafe at the venue during day two of the meet.
Patterson is both a mentor and close friend, giving Shaw a direct link to the top end of the event she hoped to reach. The setback leaves her chasing a comeback built around healing first, with the long road already defined by the brace, the surgery and the warning that the alternative could have ended her high jump career.
The accident changed the track for a 21-year-old athlete who wanted to keep rising in her event. For now, the story is less about a start list than whether the body that carried 135 kilograms and then survived spinal fusion will let her return to the runway.
