A young lifter tragically died. 

She died when a barbell rolled over her neck as she fell. This killed her as it broke her neck and severed her spine. She slipped while walking into a rack position after unracking a loaded barbell. The pins on the squat rack were spaced too far apart. She did not have a reasonable position to unrack from comfortably. 

And this led to that horrific makeshift position of standing on a rubber mat and having to tip toe to pick it up. 

And she fell back and the spotter fell forward pushing the bar ahead roll ing forward onto her neck.

The weight was clearly very heavy. And the spotters looked absolutely underprepared for the task. 

She should have been inside the squat rack with safety pins or straps positioned close to the bottom of her squat. That way, if a fail occurred the bar would land on the pins or straps as the lifter falls ahead. 

I feel terrible that this happened at all. It was avoidable. And thousands of lifters use safety equipment to avoid putting themselves in harms way in the event of a failure. 

This is not an expensive bit of gear. Most gyms have safety rods and straps. 
The education required to be an effective spotter is available everywhere. In this case, the lift should not have been attempted without pins or straps. 

But news reports did not give us the full context. 

The report reads the girl had 270 kgs on the barbell. Although reports crudely call it 270 kg rod. 

A quick check on the open powerlifting records page shows that a Yashtika Acharya does compete nationally. 

And her numbers show that the odds of her having 270 kgs on her back was next to zero. 

One may argue that detail does not matter. But I’d argue details and context matter a lot. It’s the difference between life and death. Getting details right shows that we care. 

This incident and the coverage shows all that ails us as a nation and serves as horrific metaphor. 

A perfectly avoidable tragic incident followed by uncritical coverage that seeks to make a sensationalist spectacle out of avoidable human tragedy due to a lack of knowledge and processes.