This may not seem too terrifying a prospect but, with Lochte clearly lacking the security of other  celebrity heartthrobs, his reaction to the girl running and jumping at him involved catching her, at which point both tumbled to the ground. While the fan was unharmed Lochte suffered a torn ligament and sprained another in his left knee, and will be on the sidelines for a lengthy spell as a result.

This marks the latest in a bizarre catalogue of mishaps involving the American. In 2007, he fractured his foot skateboarding, the following year he damaged his shoulder falling out of a tree during a game of hide and seek, and in 2009 he tore the menusus in his left knee - apparently by break dancing,

This is by no means an exhaustive list and, like no other, Lochte seems to combine bad luck with a sense of adventure and, some might say, outright stupidity.

He is far from the only sportsman to have experienced an injury bordering on the outlandish.

Belgian tennis star Kim Clijsters turned her ankle and then - to make matters worse - had her toe stamped on when limping off the dance-floor at a cousins wedding. High Jumper Blanka Vlasic, meanwhile, showed up for the qualification round of the 2009 World Championships in Berlin sporting a bandage after unintentionally smashing her head against a door. She did still win the final.

Footballers, maybe not unsurprisingly, have suffered their fair share of unusual mishaps. Spanish goalkeeper Santiago Canizares was ruled out of the 2002 FIFA World Cup after dropping a bottle of aftershave on his foot, Arsenal defender Steve Morrow broke his arm after he was picked up, then dropped, by his captain Tony Adams during post-match celebrations, while Rio Ferdinand once strained a tendon in his ankle simply by resting his leg on a sofa while watching television.

Ryan Lochte, is not the only sportsman to have suffered peculiar injuries, but has certainly had more than his fair share


Some of these examples, and particularly those involving Lochte, provoke laughter as much as sympathy. But in a general sense there is simply nothing more infuriating for a sportsman than suffering an injury.

I know this from a personal experience - in my most amateur of careers as a runner - where injury has frequently put paid to that elusive chance of a new personal best. Although I have been lucky in terms of serious injuries I developed a knack of developing mishaps in the final week before a major race, and producing performances even more mediocre than targeted as a result.

For a professional athlete whose whole reputation, not to mention earnings, rests on performance, this sense of frustration can be multiplied countless times.

To do everything right in the build-up only for it to all go wrong at the last minute and having all those months of preparation deemed suddenly worthless. Worst of all, to not be able to practise your craft and instead be confined to such menial training methods as aqua-jogging in a swimming pool.

From the recent past of British athletics, three injury hit figures spring to mind: Dean Macey, Dame Kelly Holmes and a, post 2003, Paula Radcliffe. For these three it always appeared a case of when not if the "i-word" would strike. For Dame Kelly it all ultimately came good in one glorious double gold medal winning week in Athens in 2004, but for all the great things the other two achieved - without injury they would have been greater still.

It is not just the athletes themselves who suffer due to injuries. National federations are often dependent on individuals to hit performance-related targets which impact future funding, while the success of Championships can be put into question by injuries ruling out star-performers.

At the International Sports Events Management Conference in London last week, we learnt about the meticulous planning which goes into hosting any event - bidding, facilities, sponsorship, mascots, ticket-sales and so on. Making sure the top athletes are present is generally out of the organisers control but is no less important.

Think Chinese hurdler Liu Xiang and his agonising exit in the heats at Beijing 2008. For all the success of the Games and of China they were just missing the icing on top of the cake which a Liu victory would have enabled. Michael Johnson did this at Atlanta 1996, Cathy Freeman did likewise at Sydney 2000, while Jessica Ennis and so many others did also at London 2012

While the poor ticket sale produced the brunt of the criticism the absence of Ennis - as well as David Rudisha, Sanya Richards-Ross and those missing for doping rather than injury-related reasons, certainly contributed to the comparative damp squid that was the 2013 World Championships in Moscow.

Jessica Ennis-Hill was one of those who has suffered injury - before the Beijing Olympics and again in 2013 - the latter case impacting the Moscow World Championships





But are injuries caused by something more profound than simply bad luck?

There is specific injury prevention you can do, encompassing gym work, circuit training and the dreaded core stability session.

No doubt because of my inability to put together more than about five press-ups - and even those are not proper ones, I can hear most of my athletics club shouting out - core sessions have long been something to wake me up in a cold sweat at night. It is indisputable however that, by improving technique and strength, this sort of training does increase resistance and therefore susceptibility to injuries.

It does however seem possible that some do this better than others, and receive less injuries as a result.

To use the non-Olympic example of football and of my team Arsenal, two decades after Morrow, they still seem to suffer more injuries than anyone else. Last season they played 53 games compared to Chelsea's 69 but, after adding up the cumulative total days lost to injury by squad members, lost 955 days to injury in comparison with just 565 for their London rivals

This seems more than just bad luck. It would certainly make an interesting thesis but when you account for the lack of body fat in Arsenal players, the extent of soft tissue injuries caused by "over-stretching, over-contracting and repetitive overuse", and the preference for overusing players and rushing them back from injury, there appears something in this nurture over nature idea.

To make a more comprehensible comparison you need only look at tennis players Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer. While Federer plays a game based more on shot-making, serving and short rallies, Nadal's is a more fitness heavy one relying on long exchanges, strength and perseverance.

The Spaniard consequently puts more pressure on his body, especially his knees, and gets injured far more often.

Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have had contrasting problems with injuries throughout their respective careers


Nadal's current form, like Arsenal's, deems this example slightly counter-intuitive, but a factor common in most great sportsman is the ability to avoid injury and, in particular, their ability to be at their best at the most important moments. Usain Bolt invariably manages this, so did Phelps and so does Mo Farah and, funnily enough, Lochte.

In the case of Federer and Nadal, although both greats, when their two careers are compared years from now, it may just be Federer's perseverance and ability to remain fit for all the big tournaments that will edge him that yard ahead in the greatness stakes.

Of course there are athletes who simply refuse to allow injury to stand in the way of success, and their greatness is enhanced all the more for it.

Nadal fits in this category, as does Lochte as well as Vlasic in 2009 and the jockey Tony McCoy who rode his 4,000 thousandth career winner at Towcester last week.

But for most injuries remains perhaps the greatest challenge to elite sportsmen - for their uncontrollable nature more than anything else.

So while Lochte's latest in a long litany of lacerations first seems rather amusing injuries are in reality anything but.

As the finest Winter Olympians and Paralympians hone their preparations over coming months, we must therefore hope that the dreaded "injury curse" does not strike again in Sochi.

Nick Butler is a reporter for insidethegames. To follow him on Twitter click here