Shotputter Laut Misses Championship Meet After Surgery to Repair Tendons in His Legs

EUGENE, Ore. —  Former UCLA shotputter Dave Laut was not here Friday night. He was sitting in a wheelchair in his father’s house at Oxnard.

A freak accident last Sunday kept Laut, the former American record-holder, from defending the national title he has won four times. Laut, 29, was in training to become a firefighter for the City of Oxnard and was taking a series of agility tests when he snapped the patellar tendons in both legs.

The drill required the 6-4, 250-pound Laut to sprint 200 yards with four sections of fire hose draped around him, then drag the hose for a short distance.

“I took the test in November and I got the record in the event,” Laut said from his parents’ home in Oxnard.

“Naturally, I had to break my own record. I really took off and got about 20 feet away, and my knees just blew up. It was my own stupidity. It was a matter of being a little too competitive.”

Laut underwent surgery at St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Oxnard to reattach the tendons, and his legs were placed in casts from ankle to hip, where they will remain for eight weeks.