Pavel Alekhin Vishneviy Injury Update
Last year, Vishneviy dominated every contest he attended and pulled some crazy ass tricks we had never seen before. Unfortunately, he went down hard a couple months ago and broke his hip. We catched up with him to see what he's up to and how he's doing. It looks like he's dealing with his recovery like a boss, it's funny how he ended up exactly where he wanted to go in the first place! Hit the Read More link for a short read and pictures.
How did you get injured?
That’s actually a long story, but I will try to keep it short. So I was accepted to ride at Nitro Circus in Moscow and enjoyed it a lot, but the next show was in St. Pete city and there was one week break beetween. As there is no foam pits in Moscow, I decided to fly somewhere to dial-in some tricks to try on the next show just for a few days. I’ve counted the expenses to head to La Poma bikepark in Barcelona and they were too high, so I decided to go to Krasnodar city where everything was “okay” with a foam pit as well. Second day of training, I went out of my “foam pit plans” and I just rode at the nice skatepark where I cased a huge 4 meters high quaterpipe and fell down on a new grippy concrete floor.
How much did it hurt to break on of the biggest bones of your body?
Oooh it was really painful. I also remember when I was transferred from one hospital to another with no painkillers and it was insane. I screamed many times and thought that I would become gray.
An injury like that is serious stuff. How was your surgery?
The surgery was under control of one the best surgeon of Krasnodar, which actually doesn’t mean anything. The thing was that in my critical state I could not be transferred to Moscow, cause it was pretty far away and kinda dangerous for my leg.
Did anyone tell you that you that you might not be able to ride afterwards or that you should stop mountain biking?
Yeah, sure. Many times, actually. This is what every unsportive doctor says when he manages injuries like that. But it didn’t touch me mentally. I’ve talked to sport doctors later and I know many people who had even worse injuries, but now are back at their activities and are even stronger at it.
What does your recovery look like on a daily basis?
I'm chilling a lot, going to the gym and doing some exercises for my leg. Now i'm Barcelona, catching good vibes to recover faster.
How long does it usually take to come back from an injury like that?
Nobody knows exactly, but I know that 70% of success during recovery is your mental brainset.
Since you can’t ride, how do you deal with all the free time you have? Any new hobbies?
Sometimes it seems that I’ve got so much time to do all the stuff I need but it really takes time to do everything with a broken hip. I don't have that many new pastimes, but I’m planning to learn Spanish soon, mi amigo!
Editor's note:
While posting those pictures of Pavel chillin' in Barcelona with Walter and Alejandro, I had to give another watch to the The Rise Invierno video we made last year featuring Pavel, Matt and Walter shutting down Barcelona, so good!
Good luck with the recovery homie!
