own, But Not Out

Gymnast Elana Kaufman is determined to bounce back from her bad break.

STEVE STEIN STAFF WRITER

t was a dismount off the balance
beam that Berkley High School
junior gymnast Elana Kaufman
had done dozens of times. On this
Friday, the 13th of January, how-
ever, something went wrong.
Very wrong.
Kaufman went crashing to the
mat. When she took a look at her
left forearm, she saw something
she didn't want to see. Her bro-
ken bones had gone not only
through her skin, but her leotard
as well.
What happened immediately
after the fall isn't clear in Kauf-
man's memory. She remembers
her coach, Lori Glinter, comfort-
ing her and Berkley trainer
David Boyer attending to her.
Some people put pants on her so
her legs would be covered.

Because she's such
a good student, she
didn't have to take
her finals.

An ambulance arrived and
about 20 minutes after the spill,
Kaufman was placed on a
stretcher for a trip from Berkley
to nearby William Beaumont
Hospital in Royal Oak.
"After she fell, Elana 'gave' me
her arm and told me to hold onto
it," Glintner recalled. "She didn't
want to look at it. I remember her
saying, 'I hate this."
"I wasn't in pain at first, but I
kept on wondering why this was
happening to me," Kaufman said.
"I remember a lot of people were
gathered around me. The guys on
the wrestling team were there
setting up for their tournament
the next day, so they saw what
happened, too."
A few hours after she arrived
at Beaumont, Kaufman under-
went surgery on the compound
fracture. It was a scary moment
for a 16-year-old who admits she
is "deathly afraid of needles."
More surgery was performed
the following Monday. Kaufman
missed the next two weeks of
school, one week of finals and the
first week of the new semester.

Kaufman is undergoing ther- said. "I want to get better so I
Because she's such a good stu-
dent (3.8 grade-point average), apy on her left arm and hand can do things like go roller-blad-
Kaufman's teachers let her skip three times a week at Beaumont ing when the weather gets nice.
and she is determined to compete I'm trying to keep a positive at-
the finals.
The injury occurred in only the in gymnastics as a senior, which titude. I feel that's very impor-
second time Kaufman competed would be her fourth season on the tant."
The daughter of Jack and
in beam. She was inserted into team.
But she knows she has a long Rosann Kaufman of Huntington
Berkley's lineup in that event in
the tri-meet against Farmington way to go. Her arm and hand Woods, Elana has a 13-year-old
and Fraser because a teammate won't be back to full strength for brother, Ari, who is an eighth-
grader at Norup Middle School.
a few more months.
was hurt.
"Right now, I can hardly hold Elana says her family has been
About 15 minutes before
the accident, Kaufman had onto the steering wheel when very supportive throughout her
recorded a career-high score I'm driving, so I can't imagine recovery. ❑
of 8.3 in parallel bars, her fa- doing gymnastics moves," she
vorite event. She was
one of Berkley's best in
that event before her
injury.
Even though her sea-
son was over a month
and a half early because
of the broken arm,
Kaufman didn't let that
disappointment stop
her from doing what
she could to help her
team. She was there at
every meet the rest of
the way, encouraging
her teammates. The
support was mutual.
"The girls were al-
ways asking me how I
was doing and giving
me hugs, and it was
great for me to see them
do so well," Kaufman
said.
Berkley won the Di-
vision II championship
in the new Oakland Ac-
tivities Association, de-
feating three other
schools not only in dual
meets, but in the Divi-
sion II meet as well.
"Elana had some
tears of disappointment
in her eyes at the divi-
sion meet, but she
helped us with her
cheering," Glinter said.
"It really meant a lot to
the girls.
"When Elana joined
our team as a fresh-
man, she had no
competitive gymnastics
experience at all. She
really takes a lot of
pride in her gymnas-
tics. That's why this in-
jury was so tough on
Elana Kaufman will always remember Berkley High School's 1994 95 gymnastics season.
her."

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