Olympic gymnast left injured following incident that has 'never been seen in competition' before

A 'never before seen' incident at the 2024 Paris Olympics left audiences and commentators gasping in horror as one athlete came incredibly close to being seriously injured.

The freak incident happened inside Paris' Bercy Arena, which is hosting the artistic and trampoline gymnastics events for the 2024 Games.

The incident concerned Canadian gymnast Felix Dolci during the men's artistic individual all-around event final on Wednesday (31 July).

A total of 24 athletes competed in the final, with Shinnosuke Oka of Japan winning gold. China's Zhang Bohend and Ziao Ruoteng took silver and bronze, respectively.

But it was Dolci, 22, that provided the most eye-opening moment of the final when he took to the horizontal bar.

Dating back to ancient Greece, the piece of gymnastics equipment is used in the men's discipline and sees competitors perform a variety of movements as they spin around the bar forward and backwards, releasing and re-grasping.

But the final was sent in to disarray when it came to Dolci's turn to score on the bar.

Part way through his routine, which had by that point seen him produce some magical twists, he built up his speed in the rotation to go again.

But when building momentum to an incredibly fast speed, Dolci dramatically fell off the bar, doing twists in the air before crashing on to the floor mat below.

The video below from X (formerly Twitter) shows the moment the incident happened:

Now this is something you don't see every day 😮

Thankfully Canadian gymnast Felix Dolci is OK. #BBCOlympics #Olympics #Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/wQR07cy8mo

— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) July 31, 2024

Matt Baker on commentary for the BBC's coverage of the final was left audibly gasping, with the live audience in the Bercy Arena reacting in a similar fashion.

Dolci was left stunned on the floor, after thankfully landing on his back rather than another part of his body that could have led to serious injury.

Members of the Canadian team approached Dolci as he remained sat on the floor, asking if he was okay before he finally got off the mat to applause from the supportive crowd. During the chat with his team, Dolci showed them and the cameras that his handguard - which is used to spin around the high bar - had snapped.

On commentary, Baker said: "Oh dear me. His hand guard has split. Well goodness me. I tell you what, he did incredibly well there, he could've caused himself a very, very nasty injury."

"Hopefully he's alright. He's going to need some time because that will have been an unbelievable shock to him. There's an obvious technical error there isn't there.

"Oh my goodness me, Felix. Unbelievable. This happens in the training gym but I have never seen that in a competition."

Dolci returned to the bar for another attempt but had to abandon his routine part way through due to the incident and snapped handguard cutting his palm.