Olympic champion Dani King sustained five broken ribs and a collapsed lung on a training ride yesteday.
The 23-year-old from Hampshire, who rode alongside Laura Trott and Joanna Rowsell to win team pursuit gold at London in 2012, broke the news in a post to Twitter today.
She wrote: “Crashed while out training yesterday resulting in 5 broken ribs and a collapsed lung. Being looked after by the amazing NHS ICU in Wales.”
King is hopeful to help Team GB defend its team pursuit title at Rio in two years’ time, but unlike Trott and Rowsell has chosen to stay at Wiggle Honda to further her road career.
Confirming last month that she would remain with the team, she also said she had elected not to ride on the track this winter.

19 thoughts on “Dani King breaks five ribs, suffers collapsed lung, in training crash”
Ouch! Get well soon.
Ouch! Get well soon.
Damn that’ll hurt. I wonder
Damn that’ll hurt. I wonder how it hapened? Get well soon Dani!
Get well soon Dani, that’s
Get well soon Dani, that’s gotta hurt! :O
I’ve had a collapsed lung
I’ve had a collapsed lung (not from a crash but spontaneous) and I’ve not experienced pain like that. Saying that, I’ve not broken any bones though.
It will hurt when she laughs!
zanf wrote:
It will hurt when
Sneezing is worse
Thoughts are with Dani at
Thoughts are with Dani at this very difficult time. Without question, in my view, the Team Pursuit Squad has been the UK benchmark in world female track cycling over the last couple of years and Rio beckons – get well soon Dani!
You can crash anywhere but
You can crash anywhere but was she really on the A470?
bendertherobot wrote:You can
From Wales Online:
“The accident happened on a B-road between Merthyr Tydfil and Quaker’s Yard and what happened was one of the cyclists with who she was riding went over a pothole that was covered with water due to the wet weather we’ve been having.”
“It led to Dani crashing off her bike with the resultant injuries she has talked about on her twitter account. The injuries are clearly painful and serious and we can only hope she gets better soon.”
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/olympic-cyclist-dani-king-injured-8070304
The quote was from her agent, so hopefully it should be an accurate account.
notfastenough
Ah, that’s “better.” I mean, I’d not venture onto the A470 itself between those points. It’s more or less a motorway.
I suffered the same damage in
I suffered the same damage in a fall earlier this year…we should compare crash notes…I am sure I was going much faster though 😉
Broken ribs are the worst. I
Broken ribs are the worst. I had two last year (not a cycling crash). While breaking them was very painful, I could still get around and do things for most of the day. What was seriously, awfully and excruciatingly painful was trying to go to bed and then getting up in the morning. It’s horrible, it took me a good 10 minutes to work the courage up to lever my torso out of the mattress.
And don’t even think about sneezing. Not unless you want to wish you were dead.
Peowpeowpeowlasers
Yes that was #2 on my list of things not to do with broken ribs. You don’t realize how much of your core you use rolling out of bed. With sneezing you could always “hug” a pillow to try to reduce the pain but there seemed to be nothing you could do to reduce the pain of getting out of bed.
The bright side for Dani — in 2 weeks she should be able to get on the trainer. Unless you do what I did — pinch a nerve in your lower back bending over with the stiffness you get from sleeping on your back for a few weeks. I guessed this is what happened to Andrew Talansky when he quit the tour with lower back pain after a big crash a few days earlier.
Thanks for the comments guys.
Thanks for the comments guys. I’m Dani’s agent and initially WalesOnline did report the crash was on the A470 which it wasn’t. It was on the road on the other side of the valley, between Merthyr Tydfil & Quakers Yard.
Best wishes for a speedy
Best wishes for a speedy recovery!
Poor Dani! Wishing her a very
Poor Dani! Wishing her a very speedy recovery. I can send on a list of my jokes if she needs to remain stony-faced.
If it’s any consolation, I
If it’s any consolation, I had a collapsed lung and multiple rib fractures as well as other fractures and have got back to cycling – just do as your physio tells you, Dani!
Ouch – get well soon Dani and
Ouch – get well soon Dani and hope all goes well.
Dani was out with some
Dani was out with some friends of mine. I’m told it was a 30mph crash and several ambulances attended. There were a few nasty injuries but Dani came off worst.
I wish them all a speedy recovery. I know how Dani feels
I had a crash in the Marmotte this year on an flat straight normal road when a guy in front not looking where he was going hit a kerb and brought himself, me and another guy off.
The result, three broken vertebrae, 3 broken ribs and a punctured lung. 5 days in a french hospital. There is a bright side to every story though – I got to experience the French healthcare system and very good it is too especially the food!
Best wishes to all involved.
Ouch. Broken ribs are
Ouch. Broken ribs are horrible. Laughing, sneezing, and even going to the loo are excrutiating. Can’t imagine a collapsed lung is a bundle of laughs, either.