BeHappy, BeFree BeBarelli
Living in the Sea-to-Sky area in the West Coast of British Columbia, you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn’t know of Professional Mountain Biker – Yoann Barelli. In the mountain biking world, he is well-known as the fun-loving, motivating guy who just wants to keep everyone smiling and riding their bikes.
“BeHappy BeFree BeBarelli” is the tag line that tops his biography on his Instagram page, showing his positive approach to life, and inspiring content to keep active. Reading through some of his posts, you’d be surprised to find out that Yoann suffered a serious knee injury that left him on a hiatus from his most beloved sport.
The Injury
For the first time since learning to ride mountain bikes in France as a kid in the early 90s, Yoann had his first major injury. During an easy-going Sunday morning ride in Whistler, Yoann attempted to ride an obstacle in a more challenging way. As he started up this obstacle, the front end of his bike lost some balance, which caused Yoann to try and balance himself. He misjudged the distance from the ground.
The result was a complete ACL tear, and a severely injured meniscus, after applying most of his body weight onto one leg. Yoann realized something was not right and took action immediately.
Luckily, he was able to meet with his Physiotherapist right after this incident, so that he could assess the damage.
“You don’t really think about this kind of stuff. I’m really comfortable riding all this gnarly stuff. It’s really natural to me. I go with my gut and when I feel like I can do something, I go for it. I know that if you feel it, why not try it. If I’m kind of scared or hesitant, I won’t do it. I never really think about getting injured though. I don’t think any pro athlete thinks about getting injured. When you are top level, you just go with the flow and you just ride.”
Yoann says, from this PinkBike article.
What can a brace do?
Yoann’s main priority when he came to OrthoMed was to protect his ACL, so that he could get back into strengthening his lower body, and eventually get back onto a bike. With the help OrthoMed's brace fitter who measured his knee to provide custom protection, Yoann received a Gold DonJoy Defiance III knee brace.
During the most important stage of his recovery, Yoann used the Defiance III from DonJoy as he repared to get back into racing, and even reach the podium of one of the world’s most technically difficult biking races: The Enduro World Series.
These days, Yoann can be seen training at the local CrossFit gym, and even riding a bike, all thanks to this awesome device! We can’t wait to see what’s in store for Yoann as he prepares to take the Mounain Biking world by storm – again.
*Photos courtesy of Yoann Barelli and his Instagram page*
