A tearful Liz Parnov has vowed to return to the Olympic stage as an even stronger athlete despite having her Rio pole vault dreams shattered by a broken leg.
Parnov will miss the Rio Games after fracturing the top of her right tibia in a serious training fall in Perth last Friday.
The 21-year-old was rushed off to hospital in an ambulance following the training mishap, before undergoing surgery to have a plate inserted in her right leg.
Parnov broke down in tears on Wednesday when talking about the pain of having her Rio hopes dashed.
But she's adamant the traumatic experience won't hold her back in her quest to make the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
"I can't just say, 'Why me', because all great athletes have these stories behind them," Parnov said.
"It's definitely going to build me as a person. It's hard now, but I know in the end all these things will be worth it, and they will make me a better athlete.
"I'll only be 25 by the next Olympics. I've just got to look to the next one now.
"I'm going to use the rest of this year to fully recover and come back stronger.
"It's not a do-all-end-all; it's just a bump in the road."
Parnov revealed her training fall was so bad that she even blacked out before hitting the ground.
"I think it was because it happened so fast, and the adrenaline," Parnov said.
"I went for the jump, and next thing I know I'm screaming holding my leg. So I don't even know how I fell in there, but it did.
"Once I fell and grabbed my knee and couldn't straighten it, I knew something was bad.
"Dad (coach Alex Parnov) and my assistant coach Paul Burgess were both telling me, 'Just calm down, it's not as bad as it seems'.
"But I knew deep down it was pretty bad."
Parnov suffered a similar injury in Italy last year, but it wasn't as serious as her latest setback.
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