Dedicated Gymnast Dies After Doing Routine Training Exercise On Uneven Bars

There are perils in gymnastics and missing a step in routines could lead to serious injuries. Unfortunately, the injuries sustained by Melanie Coleman during a routine training exercise led to her untimely death.

According to CNN, the 20-year-old gymnast fell on the uneven bars and died Sunday while sustaining the injury. Her coach, Thomas Alberti called the incident a "complete accident" and was something hard to process.

“At this time, our thoughts and prayers are with Melanie’s family,” the university’s athletic director, Jay Moran, said in a statement. “This has been devastating to her coaches and teammates and we hope to support them in this very difficult time.”

The untimely death of Coleman was pretty hard to accept. She was a leader in the gym and was dedicated to the sport. Better yet, she paid it forward by teaching gymnastics to all levels of students. Coleman simply had the desire to help everyone around her.

“What made her a great gymnast is also what made her a great person,” Alberti said. He added that Coleman believed in “love for whatever it is that you’re dreaming about doing, and giving that back to the people around you.”

In a most recent update, Coleman reportedly died after suffering a serious spinal cord injury while training at the New Era Gymnastics in Hamden. The native of Milford, Connecticut was taken to the Yale-New Haven Hospital but died Sunday.

Coleman was pursuing a degree in nursing while teaching part-time at Alberti's gym. She is a former All-State gymnast at Jonathan Law High School in Milford and was captain of the school's gymnastics team. Melanie comes from a family of gymnasts. Her mother, Susan Coleman, was a former gymnast. Her older sisters competed as well.

"She's from a very large, loving family; there's seven of us, we were the Coleman seven," Mrs. Coleman said. "We spent every day together for the past 20 years."