EUROSPORT
- A British swimmer was forced to retire from the Tokyo Olympics 10km race after taking an elbow to the eye.
- Hector Pardoe said he thought his eye had fallen out and had to ask a lifeguard if it was still there.
- The 20-year-old was later pictured with his eye badly bruised and swollen with a cut on the eyelid.
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Team GB's Hector Pardoe hurt his eye so badly that he thought it might have come out of its socket during the Tokyo Olympics 10 kilometer marathon swim, and even asked a lifeguard to check for him.
The 20-year-old swimmer was only a couple of kilometers from the finish line when a stray elbow from another swimmer caught him on his right eye, opening up a large wound, which subsequently forced him to retire.
"On my last lap, I took an elbow to the face. I thought I'd lost my eye. My goggles came off completely. I always hoped that if I got injured like that, I'd be able to finish the race but my goggles fell off and I couldn't even get them.
"I couldn't see anything, I thought my eye had fallen out in the water. I went up to the lifeguards and said, 'my eye, my eye! Is it okay?' They weren't giving me a very decisive opinion and I had to get out after that," he told Eurosport.
Speaking while holding a towel to his eye, Pardoe said it was "fine" and the wound would be stitched up once he got back to the Olympic village
Former English swimmer turned commentator Andy Jameson later tweeted a picture of Pardoe's badly cut eye, which you can see below:
WARNING: The image is graphic.
-Andy Jameson (@Andyjamesonswim) August 4, 2021
Ultimately, the race was won by Germany's Florian Wellbrock, who took the lead early on and was never caught.
Pardoe said he panicked when he saw he was far behind during the race.
"It wasn't really what I expected from the start. I started really fast from the front, really warm conditions that I'm not used to. I've never raced in such hot waters.
"I started to panic when I was behind, I could see that any chance of top five, top six was over. I was trying to secure it as much as I could, didn't get the top 10 finish. I did well to catch the group up, I was feeling okay, I got back into it," he said.