South Africa: Poorly executed backflip leads to demise of bodybuilding champion

In a video gone viral, bodybuilding champion Sifiso Lungelo attempted a back-flip amidst a cheering crowd but landed roughly on the ground breaking his neck. Sadly, he succumbed to the injuries.

Image: sifisolungelo / Instagram

A wrongly executed back-flip led to the tragic demise of South African bodybuilding champion Sifiso Lungelo Thabete last Saturday in South Africa. A video of the mishap  has gone viral on the internet. In the video the body-builder can be seen attempting a back-flip which could not be executed properly and the body-builder crashed to the ground mangling his neck. It was the occasion of a bodybuilding championship. As the announcer introduces Lungelo, he can be seen strutting towards the ring like a real champion flexing his muscles. Loud music and constant cheering of the crowd probably charged him up and he attempted a backflip. Before the crowd could realise what went wrong, Lungelo fell on the ground motionless breaking his neck. It took some time for the crowd and the officials to realise that things were not right. The officials immediately ran to his help. Watch the video here: Video: Charles Cilliers/ YouTube The body building community on the internet has received a great blow with the news of his death. According to a bodybuilding magazine of South Africa, Lungelo had impressed the crowd and judges with unbelievable muscle size and maturity beyond his age. Famous jiu-jitsu practitioner Renzo Gracie had tweeted the video on August 9.  

A little reminder... Your Brain has no muscles to protect it.. Keep your head safe all the time. Avoid getting hit on your thinking machine pic.twitter.com/LT1BKXILMr

— Renzo_Gracie_BJJ (@RenzoGracieBJJ) August 9, 2017