Minna Abraham of USC ripped her fingernail as well as her bone out of her finger on January 28th, 2026, just three weeks before the 2026 Big Ten Championships and seven weeks before the 2026 NCAA Championships. Abraham shared details on her Instagram.
“During a dive, my finger got wedged under the block and when I jumped I ripped my entire nail and bone out making it an open fracture,” Abraham said. On January 30, after having surgery and a pin put into her finger, Abraham was told “no water for 5 weeks.”
Just before the 2026 Big Ten Championships, Abraham had announced that she would not travel to the meet due to “personal reasons.” The USC women finished 5th out of 14 teams at the meet.
Abraham spent just under two weeks out of the water at the end of January through the start of February as her first day back in the pool was February 9th. She was in the water with double plastic bags and doing vertical kicking as well as one armed backstroke.
On February 18th, what would have been the first day of Big Tens, Abraham took her first stroke in the water again. She wrapped her finger and it had a latex wrap on it that was taped to keep it secure. She did the same to the opposite hand to keep weight equal between the two hands. Just two weeks out from NCAAs on March 4th, Abraham got the pin out from her finger and was able to swim without her finger wrapped.
Despite the injury, the USC junior had a strong showing at the 2026 NCAA Championships as she was 4th in the 200 free in a 1:41.66. Abraham had the 2nd fastest flying start split of the field in the 800 free relay as she split a 1:40.25. She was USC’s highest scorer at the team finished 14th overall.
What a remarkable young lady! How incredibly painful and courageous! If this was published a day later I would have thought surely this is the April Fools article!
Worst possible way to nail your start
OUCH. Why would you not just say you’re dealing with an injury though?
Sometimes you have to *paint a picture*.
Split a 1:40 less than a month after surviving a Saw trap type of injury
That’s crazy. Just so tough and talented to perform that well so soon after.
Will they get her to sign this block and put it in a glass viewing box?
My goodness I can’t even imagine the pain… she performed so well for having to miss a bunch of training leading up to taper, if not the taper itself!
The eye of the tiger to be quite frank