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Tiger Woods -

On February 23, 2021, Tiger Woods was involved in a single-car crash. His vehicle came to a halt on its side in the woods, and he was rushed to the hospital. Though his injuries weren't fatal, the bones in his legs were shattered into more than two pieces. As fans know, it wasn't the first time Woods has been involved in a car accident either.

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Intoxication in the early hours -

In late November 2009, Tiger Woods sped out of his Orlando driveway across curbs, collided with a fire hydrant, and plowed into a neighbor’s tree.

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A scandalous decade -

This was the beginning of a scandalous decade for the athlete. Surrounded by glass and groggy from a cocktail of painkillers and sleeping pills, he was taken to hospital by ambulance.

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The truth comes out -

The crash happened moments after his wife had caught him cheating. Woods’ private life was engulfed in a media storm, for instance making the New York Post’s front page for 20 consecutive days. Numerous women subsequently revealed having had relations with the golfer.

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Shawn Bradley -

Shawn Bradley, one of the tallest players in NBA history and alongside Michael Jordan one of the stars of 'Space Jam' (1996), was paralyzed as of January 2021 after a car hit him while he was riding his bicycle, this in Utah. The 48-year-old suffered "a traumatic spinal cord injury that left him paralyzed," according to the Dallas Mavericks.

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"Mentally she was just so tough, she was right up there with Chris [Evert]” - Martina Navratilova -

At age 19, Monica Seles was the top-ranked women's singles tennis player in the world. At her young age, she had already won over half a dozen Grand Slam singles titles. But then came the day she was stabbed on a tennis court.

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"We got cheated, Monica got cheated, everyone got cheated,"- Martina Navratilova -

During the quarterfinals of the Citizens Cup tournament in Germany in 1993, she was stabbed by Gunter Parche, an out-of-work, unstable German man obsessed with the German-born tennis player Steffi Graf.

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Never the same -

Parche, who wanted to see Graf take the no. 1 spot, was found to be deranged and was given a suspended sentence and probation. Seles returned to tennis in 1995, winning the 1996 Australian Open and a bronze medal in singles at the 2000 Olympics, but most who saw her dominate women's tennis from 1990-1993 could see her best days were behind her.

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The fastest man on land -

Winning seven F1 championships, Michael Schumacher was the leading Formula One driver of his generation. Then came his ski accident in 2013.

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The day it happened -

While skiing off-piste in the French Alps in 2013, he fell and hit his head on a rock, causing severe brain damage. In the following days, he underwent surgery and was later placed in a medically-induced coma.

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Leaving quietly -

He came out of the coma six months later, in June. In 2018, a member of his team announced that Schumacher does not breathe through devices, but besides this not much information on his health has been released.

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A tragic horseback riding accident -

At 19 years old, two weeks after she won her third-straight Wimbledon title in 1954, Maureen Connolly was horseback riding when she suffered a career-ending accident.

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Forced to retire -

A passing concrete truck mixer startled the horse, which pinned her against the truck. She suffered a compound fracture to her right fibula, forcing her to retire a year later.

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Chapecoense -

An air crash took the lives of almost all of the Chapecoense Brazilian football team in 2016. 

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71 dead -

Chapecoense's plane went down en route to the team's first South American tournament final against Colombia's Atletico Nacional. The crash killed 71 of the 77 people on board, including team staff, members of the media, guests, and flight crew members.

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Three players survived -

Three players survived the crash: Alan Ruschel (rear), Jackson Follmann (center), and Neto (left). Follmann, who lost part of his right leg in the accident, hopes to become a Brazilian Paralympic athlete. Alan Ruschel continues to play professional soccer, but Neto eventually called it quits in 2019, while still with Chapecoense, because the pain was just too much.

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"We just assumed that she had left," testified Kristy Stahr (trainer) -

Canadian-born tennis player Eugenie Bouchard was at the peak of her career when in 2015 she suffered a concussion after entering the dressing room after a late-night training session and slipping on a cleaning agent on the floor.

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"You can't ever complain" -

Eugenie Bouchard blamed the United States Tennis Association (USTA) as being responsible, who commented, "When you get 75% or better, you can't ever complain about that," in regards to damages paid.

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On the rocks -

Her performances in the following years consisted of some fantastic tennis, but they were overshadowed by losing streaks and forfeiting, speculated as a result of the injury. She's still an active player, but she's a shadow of her former self.

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WBO champion -

Paul Williams was on his way to his brother’s wedding in Atlanta on a motorcycle when a car next to him started drifting towards him. He swayed to stay out of its way onto an embankment, a reasonable choice, but one that would leave him paralyzed from the waist down.

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Head-on collision -

The WBO welterweight champion boxer, who then had a record of 41-2, with 27 knockouts, veered out of the passing lane, away from that threat, but into oncoming traffic. He collided head-on with an oncoming car, which is fatal for motorcyclists in most cases. 

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Hockey's Heatley -

Former hockey player Dany Heatley was 22 years old when he crashed his Ferrari in 2003. The star player suffered knee injuries and broke his jaw; his friend, however, wasn’t lucky enough to escape the accident with his life.

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The death of Dan Snyder -

His former teammate Dan Snyder was a passenger in the car. Snyder suffered severe injuries, lapsed into a coma, and died several days later.

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Second-degree vehicular homicide -

Heatley was charged with second-degree vehicular homicide and received three years probation after his parents pleaded for no jail time. Before his sentence was over, Heatley left the Atlanta Thrashers team, as being with them reminded him of the accident. Heatley continued to play until 2016.

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Negligence at sea -

Lars Grael, a Brazilian politician, was once a professional sailor. In 1988 and 1996, he won two Olympic bronze medals.

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A shocking amputation -

In September 1998, he suffered a severe accident caused by a boat driver’s negligence, who left a propeller uncovered. It amputated Grael's leg. 

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Another possible amputation -

Austrian skier Hermann Maier had won two gold medals at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Japan. But in 2001, he was in a terrible motorcycle accident, and doctors considered amputating his leg.

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Two more medals -

He suffered severe injuries to both of his legs, and doctors were sure that he would never walk again. But remarkably he returned to competing, and in 2006 he won two more medals at the Winter Games in Italy.

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Drinking and driving -

Former Dallas Cowboys player Josh Brent is lucky to still be alive after he crashed his car in 2013 after consuming as many as 17 drinks, killing his teammate.

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Intoxicated manslaughter -

His teammate Jerry Brown was in the car when the vehicle hit a curb and flipped over, bursting into flames. Josh Brent was sentenced to six months in prison for intoxicated manslaughter.

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An athlete's fate -

Brazil's Laís Souza, a former artistic gymnast, was training to become an Olympic aerial skier when she was paralyzed from below the neck.

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She regained some sensation -

After hitting a tree while training in Utah, she sustained a neck injury, suffering "severe trauma."  After that, she regained some sensation in parts of her feet and legs after undergoing stem cell treatment. But her career as an athlete was over.

Sources: (New York Post)(TheSportster)(Tennis Channel)

See also: Fallen stars–celebrities who perished in air crashes

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