Three-time Australian Olympian Lisa Skinner suffered a frightening fall Sunday afternoon while performing with Cirque du Soleil in Brisbane, crashing 6 meters (20 feet) to the stage.
Skinner, 35, was performing an aerial hoop act in the show Koozå at Skygate when she slipped and plummeted to the stage floor below, just before 2pm. Shocked audience members watched as crew rushed to the stage to treat the Albany Creek woman. Paramedics rushed Ms Skinner, who was stable and conscious, to Royal Brisbane Hospital where she remained in the emergency ward. Within a few hours, Skinner posted on social media that despite some injuries, she was expecting to make a full recovery.
Her mother, Anne Skinner, told River 94.9 on Monday her daughter was “doing well” and had suffered a C1 fracture in her neck and a broken arm. “Today she is going to be fitted with what they call a halo brace to keep her head still … it will take about 6-12 weeks to heal,” she said. “Her arms and legs work which is the main thing and she survived. She should recover but it will just be a long, hard road at this point.”
Skinner’s mother, Anne, told a Queensland radio station on Monday that her daughter was lucky after landing on her head.
Cirque du Soleil said the cast and crew’s “thoughts and love” were with Ms Skinner following her fall, adding she was expected to leave hospital “within a few days.”
“We are happy to report that Lisa is currently stable and in good condition,” Cirque said in a statement on Monday. “At this time, our priority is on supporting Lisa and her family so they can focus on her recovery.”
Ms Skinner said she hadn’t seen what happened but understood her daughter had attempted to catch the hoop around the hip area but it had landed lower than expected and she couldn’t grab it. “There was nothing except air after that,” she told radio host Paul Campion.
Audience member Teagan Barratt, who had front row seats, posted on Facebook about the incident, which she said was “one of the scariest things” she had ever witnessed. “She was still and face down and her head was the first thing that made the impact on falling which was terrifying,” she wrote. “When they supported her and moved her, you could see that she was breathing. That was I think the most relieving part of the whole ordeal.”
The show resumed after Skinner’s fall, though all audience members were required to remain seated until paramedics had taken the injured acrobat from the stage, per Cirque rules. Jessica Levoeuf from Cirque du Soleil said the circus prepares for accidents.
“It’s something that we actually rehearse for different scenarios every single week at Cirque du Solei,” Levoef said. “The safety and security of our artists and our patrons as well is always the number one concern. Our first response team reacted very quickly and the performer is responsive, is safe and is under great medical care at the moment.”
Skinner began her gymnastics career at the age of six and kicked off her international career in 1995. Lauded for her beautiful lines and artistry, she competed at the 1996, 2000 and 2004 Olympic Games. At the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Skinner placed eighth in the all-around and on floor exercise, the first Australian gymnast to ever reach an Olympic apparatus final. After a brief retirement, she returned to gymnastics in 2002. In 2003, she was a member of the Australian women’s squad that won a historic bronze medal at the world championships in Anaheim, the first and only world team medal for Australia to date. Additionally, Skinner was a two-time Commonwealth Games champion, winning gold with the Australian team and on uneven bars at the 1998 Games in Kuala Lumpur.
Skinner joined Cirque du Soleil in 2006, and performed in Alegría and Quidam. She only recently joined Koozå as it toured her native Queensland – having been on a break in the United States when she was asked to join Kooza for a few months while the aerial hoops performer took a few months off. Koozå’s aerial hoops act was her first solo performance with Cirque du Soleil and was also the first time she had performed for her hometown.
{ Brisbane Times & International Gymnast Magazine | https://goo.gl/RRwQFx; https://goo.gl/Su5ymL }
