I first tore my ACL when I was 10 years old doing gymnastics. Shoot full twist dismount from A-bars. The bars were in a school hall, quite close to a stage and I remember feeling tight for space and wrapping the twist in hard. Feet landed, body kept twisting. Pop. It hurt. Out came the ice packs most gymnasts carry in their kit bags, and I sat out the rest of the session. After a few days the swelling went down and it all seemed to settle so I went back to training.
I had no idea I'd done such damage at the time - must have had quads of steel in those days - but over the next six months, it became clear I couldn't carry on. Whenever we ramped up the difficulty, if a competition was coming up or we progressed back to 'hard landings', the knee would give way and six months later I'd lost too much ground to be competitive any more.
The obvious question is 'why didn't you go and see a doctor?' and there are several reasons.
Firstly, because I could train intermittently, when it did give way my coach told me I was putting it on, trying to get out of training etc. Heck, I even competed in a team apparatus competition a few weeks later, with a modified beam routine that ended in the knee giving out during my dismount, only to be told by my coach that it was my fault we'd lost a medal as I'd had to take too much difficulty out of the routine. I trust gymnastics coaches are more enlightened these days! (Update 2022: Sadly many, it seems, are not 😢)
Secondly, I didn't want to inconvenience my parents with doctors appointments and thirdly, I began to believe that, as the knee wasn't continuously non-functional, maybe I was imagining it after all.
Cutting a long story short, I lived with it throughout my teenage years - occasionally giving way in school (dance club and high jump being two memorable occasions) or on the bus - but it just became 'normal' for me.
Like many, I fell off the sporting wagon when I went to university so my activity levels waned until, in a fit of 'I'm going to be a fat bride' panic, I signed up for a series of PT sessions at the local gym in the run up to my wedding, nearly 20 years later. My knee gave way during one session and it was only when my PT said 'no, that's really not normal' that I decided to get it looked at.
GP said it was nothing serious but referred me to physio. Physio took one look at it , told me the ACL was torn and sent me back to the GP. And so the 'journey' began...