NHRA legend John Force released from rehab center one month after fiery crash

Drag racing icon John Force is heading home, one month after he suffered a traumatic brain injury (TBI) in a high-speed crash at the NHRA Virginia Nationals in late June.

John Force Racing announced that Force “finally gets to sleep in his own bed” after being discharged from Barrow Neurological Institute, a neurological rehabilitation center in Phoenix, where he was transferred to earlier this month to treat cognitive and behavioral symptoms from his TBI.

“Peace out Phoenix! After 30 days my dad is finally heading home where we will continue outpatient therapy,” his daughter, fellow NHRA Funny Car driver Brittany Force, shared in an update on Instagram on Tuesday. “These next steps to recovery will definitely be a family effort!”

John Force’s team said the next phase of his recovery involves “outpatient speech, and OTPT (Occupational and Physical Therapy) to address lingering short-term memory and cognitive issues.”

Force, a 16-time NHRA champion, was injured in a fiery crash on June 23 at Virginia Motorsports Park. He had just won his heat with a 302 mph run when his engine exploded, forcing his Funny Car to crash into a concrete wall at high speed. He was able to exit the wreckage, but did not escape without injury. Force suffered a TBI and fractured sternum, among other injuries, and was airlifted to a Virginia hospital, where he remained for 15 days before being transferred to Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix.

The Hall of Famer has made tremendous progress in the past month. His team previously announced that Force is able to “converse” with others and has “regained his equilibrium,” allowing him to walk with assistance. Despite the positive signs, his daughter Courtney Force said her father still has “a long road to recovery.”

“Finally saying bye to Phoenix & Barrow Rehab (with) dad! Thank you to all the wonderful nurses & doctors,” Courtney Force wrote on Twitter, alongside several photos of her dad in Phoenix, including one of him wearing a cast on his right arm. “It’s been one month since his accident & he’s officially starting outpatient care back home! This will still be a long road to recovery for him, but we’re all still so proud of him.”

John Force has won a total of 157 Funny Car events during his legendary racing career, which began in 1978. He currently ranks fifth in the 2024 NHRA Funny Car standings through 11 of 20 events this season.

Contributing: Steve Gardner

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: NHRA great John Force released from rehab center after fiery crash

Charlotte Dujardin, Britain’s three-time Olympic equestrian champion, has been shown repeatedly striking a horse on the back of the legs with a whip in distressing footage shared with Telegraph Sport.

The video, which also appears to capture Dujardin saying “This is so s— at hitting them hard” in an apparent reference to the whip, reveals the six-time Olympic medalist aggressively striking a horse being ridden by another woman despite the horse growing increasingly uncomfortable.

The leading dressage star, who could have become the country’s most decorated female Olympian, has been banned from the Paris Games over the video, in which her treatment of the horse has been likened to whipping an “elephant in the circus”. Dujardin can be seen using the whip on several occasions against a horse she is training. The full video, which has been shared with The Telegraph by the whistleblower’s lawyer, is alleged to show Dujardin striking the animal 24 times.

Dujardin is understood to be teaching the horse the ‘piaffe’, the slow-motion trot technique dating back to the Renaissance. But those giving instruction in the piaffe typically do so by tapping the horse very lightly, just to encourage it to lift its legs.

Dujardin admitted she made an “error of judgment” during a coaching session involving a 19-year-old rider in Gloucestershire. The 39-year-old immediately stood down from Team GB before being provisionally suspended for six months by equestrian’s governing body, the FEI.

She said she was “deeply ashamed” on learning that the footage had been sent to authorities.

‘I just don’t understand how she got into that situation’

Reacting to the release of the video, former eventer and current ITV Racing presenter Alice Plunkett said: “It’s not a video that makes anybody feel comfortable watching, it is not appropriate and it is not something that I’ve ever seen in terms of the years that I’ve been working with horses. It’s not standard practice. That is not a standard way of training your horses for top-level dressage, she knows that and I just don’t understand how she got into that situation because she’s somebody who has made her life from horses.

“She’s made her life from horses because she manages them in a way that they work for her. Valegro would not have performed in the way that he did for her if she was treating him like that.

“She’s in a systematic training session, she’s training someone else’s horse in that video and she’s made the wrong decision in how to solve the problem. It is not acceptable.”

Plunkett added: “People may think that [the ban] isn’t enough, but in terms of reacting to it, she’s taken herself out of the Olympic Games before the sanction came through.”

As shock waves spread through the Team GB camp in France, Dujardin admitted she had made “an error of judgment” during a coaching session involving a 19-year-old rider in Gloucestershire.

How the world reacted

Animal welfare group PETA, a long-time opponent of equestrian and other horse sports, reignited calls to remove the event from the Olympics. PETA’s US senior vice-president Kathy Guillermo said: “The message to the International Olympic Committee should be clear by now: remove equestrian events from the Olympic Games.

“Yet again, an Olympic rider has been caught on video abusing a horse to force the animal to behave in an entirely unnatural way, simply for her own glory. Horses don’t volunteer – they can only submit to violence and coercion. It’s time for the Olympics to move into the modern era.”

World Horse Welfare chief executive Roly Owers, meanwhile, says the Dujardin episode is a “massive wake-up call for anyone who thinks this is not important”.

Owers said: “This story is another salutary reminder of how vital it is that equestrians put the welfare of the horse first, all of the time, whether in the competition arena or behind closed doors.

“We welcome Charlotte’s decision to take full responsibility and withdraw from the Paris Olympics, and British Equestrian and the FEI’s [the International Federation for Equestrian Sports] swift action.

“Horse sport rightly has high standards, as illustrated in the FEI Code of Conduct and British Equestrian’s Charter for the Horse, but it is a collective responsibility to maintain these standards.

“Respect for the horse must be at the heart of every equestrian, and every equestrian sport, and their actions must demonstrate that respect all of the time.

“World Horse Welfare actively supports horse sport, but there cannot be any tolerance for unacceptable practices, no matter how experienced the rider or coach.

“We know that a successful future for horse sport has public trust at the centre of it, and this requires equestrians to be caring and to always treat their horses with respect, compassion and understanding.”