A little more than two weeks ago in Colorado Springs, Colorado, Lukas Verzbicas was enjoying a standard interval session on his bike when an encounter with a wet patch of sand sent the promising young athlete over his handle bars and into a guard rail.

“I lost control of my bike, and tried to brake,” Verzbicas told Competitor Radio, “I went straight in to the barrier and have been in the hospital ever since”

The 19 year old sustained a laundry list of serious injuries: two broken vertebrae, a broken clavicle, a collapsed lung, and a spinal cord that was injured but not damaged. After the assessment, he had to go under the knife for an excruciating six hours.

“In my back they put two big rods to stabilize my spine and five smaller rods to support it; and a couple small screws in my clavicle-- it split in three parts so it was pretty serious,” he said; then added with a chuckle, “so I got a bit of hardware in me right now.”

After waking up from surgery Verzibcas spent three days in intensive care. There, he discovered that though he had sensation in his right leg, he could no longer move it. But before entering surgery for his clavicle, he noticed that he was able to move his leg, which was a huge relief.

“Oh it was great, people were high fiving. It’s like a sporting event here. If you move a limb it’s like scoring a goal or something,” her joked. According to the interview he will soon be starting rehab, which will be a tedious, arduous, and likely frustrating affair.

“It involves at least three hours a day,” he said of rehab, “and learning how to walk, in all honesty, without a walker and trying to be less reliable of the help from anyone. It sounds terrible but it’s the reality”

The spectacular thing about Verzbicas’s situation is his amazing outlook; throughout the interview the affable young man is impossibly optimistic. His monologues are peppered with enthusiasm and an outlook that’s very much grounded in his predicament but his eyes are most definitely on the horizon.

“Everyone has these setbacks and I think in the end as long as you get through them it will make you stronger.”

One thing for certain is that his head is in the right place. Will the running community ever see the Verzbicas that tore through the high school record book again? Or the young man that took away two ITU titles in his first year as a professional triathlete? Who’s really to say. But if Verzbicas has any input, it won’t be long before he's back on the road, trying to be one of the world's best.

“I can be excited for what the future will bring but for now it’s really about staying on top of things, making sure I don’t get too down, stay healthy and get through this.”

Check out the full interview here: Competitor Radio Interview with Lukas Verzbicas