Abbotsford's Ken Ikeda May Step in for Injured Olympic Gymnast

Canadian gymnast Brandon O'Neill suffered an ankle injury in a training accident on Monday, jeopardizing his participation at the Beijing Olympics.

O'Neill, a strong team member with a conceivable shot at medal in the floor exercise, suffered the injury while doing a tumbling pass at the National Indoor Stadium in Beijing.

"He landed quite short and when he hit the ground he felt something move in his ankle,” said Canadian coach Tony Smith on Tuesday. “Normally he'd get right back up, but he wasn't able to.”

Tests indicated ligament damage and not a break, as was initially feared.

If the Edmonton native can't compete, Ken Ikeda of Abbotsford, B.C., would take his spot in the team competition. The Canadian squad will have until one hour before qualifying starts on Saturday to make that decision.

"It's still pretty swollen," said Smith. "He's working on moving it around right now, so we've got the full gamut of the medical services working with him."

Not competing would be quite a blow for O'Neill, 23, who just missed out on qualifying for the 2004 Olympics. Since then, he has racked up impressive accomplishments in the floor routine.

O'Neill won a silver medal in the floor exercise at the 2005 world championships in Australia, and has accumulated three gold, five silver and two bronze medals in the past four years of World Cup competition. Aside from a silver medal in the vault — in China in 2006 — all his medals were in the floor exercise.

He also took silver last year at the Good Luck Beijing event.

O'Neill is also strong in the other events, winning gold in parallel bars and taking silver in the vault at the Canadian championships this year in Calgary.