BBC presenter Chemmy Alcott was rushed to hospital with a collapsed lung after jumping into a lake. The 44-year-old TV personality filmed her jump from a five-metre platform into a lake in the French Alps, but a bad landing led to her being taken to hospital.
Sharing the incident on social media, Alcott explained she was left struggling to breathe. She told her Instagram followers: "Most people badly time a front flip off a five metre platform and get winded. I apparently don’t do things by halves, collapsed lung, chest drain and a very expensive lesson in rotation."
Recovery in hospital
In the caption for her upload, she said: "Well… that escalated quickly. Turns out 5 metres is quite a long way to discover you’ve got the rotation wrong. One badly timed front flip. One very hard landing. One collapsed lung. One chest drain. And a few more hospital overnights than were on the holiday itinerary…"
She added: "I absolutely LOVED Annecy… but I’m not entirely sure it loved me back." She also uploaded images from her hospital bed, including one showing a surgeon seemingly draining fluid from her side via a tube.
Support from followers
After her post, followers offered messages of support. One wrote: "It’s crazy because the fall in the video doesn’t look harmful." Another said: "Oh my God! Get well soon, we do live SO vicariously through your antics!!"
Alcott, whose real name is Chemine, is known for her skiing career. She took up skiing in her youth and made her senior debut in her teens, winning medals in the Super G and Giant Slalom at the 1999 European Youth Winter Olympic Festival. She competed in all five disciplines at the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City but did not secure a medal.
Career and previous injuries
Her latest injury is not her first. During her career, she suffered leg breaks on multiple occasions, the first in 2010, and those injuries contributed to her retirement in 2014 following her doctor's advice. Previously speaking to The Sun, she recalled her surgeon's warning: "[My surgeon] sat me down and said that if I kept going competitively and crashed, he would have to amputate my leg from the knee down, because I don't have any bone any more. It shocked me."
She added: "He said, 'Look, this is what you're risking. I let you do it to get to the Olympics, but this is what you're risking every time you experience that G-force and go 80mph'. I was like, 'Right, OK, OK, I love ski racing, I love the mountains but I love this life more'. I probably needed someone to be that severe with it. The best thing that happened to me was that I had to retire."
