Athlete Interview: Ryan Ontiveros
In this interview, we talk to Ryan Ontiveros, a track athlete at Arcadia High School, and a former victim of a bone bruise. Ryan explains his experience dealing with this injury, and what he did to return to peak performance.
How did you develop the injury?
“I got it due to poor form when doing hurdles in a race. It was probably the way I was landing that was incorrect which impacted the ball of my foot more than it should have”
What were your initial thoughts when you first had the injury?
“I didn’t think of it much at first, since I figured it would just heal, but then it didn’t go away and started to hurt more and more, which definitely raised more attention. It definitely then became more worrying”
What was rehab like?
“There wasn’t too much rehab I did besides just ice it, and I had to completely take a few months off going into summer which I didn’t really like. Overall there wasn’t a whole lot of rehab I did besides resting and icing.”
How was your mental state during this time?
“Mentally it all just kind of sucked, since I wasn’t able to run and definitely feel like I lost some fitness or speed from when I came back from the injury. As well as it taking longer to heal than what I expected just also was very frustrating, since it seemed like forever.”
Any injury for an athlete is extremely scary, especially one that takes a while to heal. Luckily, for Ryan, after all the hassle, he is back and training for his first race this season, looking to run some personal bests.