Khan Porter Suffers Pec Tear in Warm-ups, Still Competing

The pec tear epidemic has crossed over the Pacific Ocean and has affected Khan Porter. During warm-ups prior to Event 2, Porter felt a tweak in his right pec. The CrossFit medical staff examined Porter and felt a “slight deviation in the pec” and said that continuing in the competition could result in more damage.

Porter, however, did take the floor for Event 2 and did strict ring dips to minimize the stress on the muscle. He was able to compete the event in 10th place, but not after getting no-repped multiple times on the round of 9 for not meeting the movement standards.

Porter said on Instagram that he decided to risk further injury as this will be his last season competing as an individual.

#RegionalsDiary Event 2. What a whirlwind of emotions. Prior to regionals I tested event 2 a couple of times, racked up as much ring dip volume as I could and had a cheeky feeling I might sneak an event win on it. In the warm up area I jumped on the rings, banged out a few dips and instantly felt my right pec tweak. I’ve never had an injury to my chest and never had issues doing dips. I tried again and the pain got worse. I started to stress haha. I had @dr.nickpapas work through it, then had the CrossFit Games medical team doctor take a look and she advised me she could feel a slight deviation in the pec and that if I were to continue the competition I would seriously risk tearing my pec from the bone and would recommend withdrawing from the event. I told myself this will be my last season competing as an individual, so choosing to pull out on a maybe did not sit well with me and after a textbook KP emotional moment I decided to continue anyway. The doctor recommended then that I do my dips as strict as possible and err on the side of caution. I ripped into the workout and found myself clear ahead of the pack going into the final round of 9 dips. Still trying to stay strict I began getting no repped for not moving my hips enough below the rings. This is a standard I’ve never practiced when doing strict dips and in the heat of the moment, with my pec the way it was I couldn’t seem to get into a rhythm with my kip and ended up doing around 25 dips to get the full set of 9 out, placing 10th overall in the workout. NOTE this was not a bad judging call at all, I just couldn’t figure out what I was doing wrong and how to fix it in time, that’s totally on me. Though I was incredibly frustrated at the time, in hindsight I made a decision to change my strategy in that workout to try and prevent further injury and that decision has allowed me to continue in the competition for the time being, which I am so stoked about! I can’t thank the medical staff enough for their help before and after this event, particularly the sports doc dealing with an emotional athlete wouldn’t be an easy task at all haha. Onward to day 2! #SilverLining

A post shared by Khan Porter (@iamkhanporter) on May 26, 2017 at 2:45am PDT

Porter is set to continue on Day 2. Watch as Porter starts his round of 15 in the video below. One of the movement standards requires the athlete’s hips to move up and down.