Daredevils don’t usually come in such small packages. But most of them aren’t Charisma Markovic.
The 18-year-old Chatham girl recovered from a vicious accident on the BMX track to win a provincial title this year, and can’t wait to compete again next year.
Charisma, who exudes enthusiasm when talking about the sport she loves, also realizes how lucky she is.
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On July 16, while out at the Wolfe Creek BMX track going over jumps, she collided in midair with her 12-year-old brother Jaxon. She had to be told what happened next.
“I don’t even remember my crash,” she said. “It was – from what I heard – about a 10-foot jump. We jumped, the wind caught us, my handlebar hooked on his, and I guess I just did a swan dive headfirst into the ground.”
She suffered a concussion and severe whiplash, and also had a badly bruised jaw thrown in for good measure. Jaxon, meanwhile, just suffered a few scrapes and bruises.
“We normally have a tuck-and-roll rule, but apparently I didn’t do that very well.”
One thing she said she did well was walk away from the crash.
“Apparently, I popped right back up, went to talk to some of my friends nearby, and didn’t make any sense,” Charisma said. “One of the track dads said I needed to go to the hospital.”
On the way to the hospital, her mother, Charlene, tried to hold it all together, while seeing firsthand the memory loss caused by a concussion.
“I’m trying not to get all emotional,” she said, recalling the drive. “All she knew was that her head hurt. I had to keep explaining to her that she’d had an accident.”
Charisma would tell her mother she needed to go to the hospital because her head hurt; Charlene would reply, telling her what happened and that they were headed there; and Charisma would soon start the process all over again, forgetting the conversation they’d just had only moments earlier.
Somehow, Charlene held her emotions in check.
Charisma’s injuries landed her at the Fowler Kennedy Sports Medicine Clinic in London, Ont., where she received treatment for her concussion.
Recovery wasn’t easy – mentally.
“I’d rather have a broken bone,” she said of her frustration. “The only things I could do after a week was play UNO with all the hard cards removed and colour with a blue marker. That was my life for a month in the middle of summer.”
Looking back on the crash, Charisma realizes She’s fortunate here injuries weren’t even more severe.
She said the force of the impact blew out some of the heavy padding in her top-of-the-line mountain bike helmet. It did its job, and still she wound up with a concussion.
Despite the nasty injury, all that was going through her mind after the crash was getting back on the bike and back into competition. Charisma had taken part in three provincial points series races and fared well. As she sat out, letting her brain and neck heal, she missed three more provincial-level races and feared her quest for an Ontario title had faded before her eyes.
Finally, after a month of living in near darkness, Charisma got the all-clear from her doctors. On Aug. 15, she took to the track, hoping to scratch her way into the provincial finals.
As badly as she wanted to race again as soon as possible after the crash, it wasn’t easy hopping back on her bike.
“The first few races, I was very, very scared,” she said. “Looking back, it scares me still. Whenever I have small crashes or sleep wrong, my neck still hurts.”
It didn’t help that two weeks back on the bike she fell and was run over by another competitor.
She remained undaunted.
“I’ve learned not to go near people,” she said.
But she returned to action with an even better helmet, she said, and put her power back into her pedals. Charisma, despite only competing in four points races out of seven, earned a berth in the provincial final, placing third in that event for her age group. The effort earned her the overall provincial points title for the season.
After such a rough and tumble season, she can’t wait for next year.
Charisma hopes to defend her title, possibly even running in a higher age group.
As for looking back on her crash, “I almost want to see a video,” she said, had someone captured the accident on camera.
Notice she said “almost?”
