After Landing on His Neck in a Freak Accident During a Game, University of Iowa Cheerleader Feels 'Very Lucky' to Be Back on the Field
- - After Landing on His Neck in a Freak Accident During a Game, University of Iowa Cheerleader Feels 'Very Lucky' to Be Back on the Field
Wendy Grossman KantorAugust 15, 2025 at 9:00 PM
Brian Ray/hawkeyesports.com
Austin Beam is a University of Iowa cheerleader who has been doing gymnastics since he was 9
During a January basketball game against the University of Minnesota Gophers in January, Beam fell on his neck and sustained a severe concussion while doing back handsprings across the court
Beam recovered and was back cheering in time for March Madness — and is now preparing to be back doing stunts during his senior year
There was 2:42 left on the clock when a time out was called in the men’s basketball game between University of Iowa Hawkeyes versus the University of Minnesota Gophers last January.
Iowa Cheerleader Austin Beam (who you might recognize as the Iowa cheerleader who went viral on social media in September 2023, when his pants fell down while he was flipping on a football field) started doing back handsprings across the court. But before completing the three he was targeting, he fell in mid-air, landing on his neck and shoulder.
Paramedics rushed to his aid, and Butler gave a thumbs-up as he was carried off the court in a stretcher, wearing a neck brace. He found that broke his scapula and had a serious concussion, but with rehab and dedication, he was back in time to cheer for March Madness.
“As soon as I was able to, I wanted to get back,” says Austin Beam, 21, now a rising senior majoring in biomedical engineering at the University of Iowa.
Brian Ray/hawkeyesports.com
Iowa Cheerleaders Austin Beam and Sarah Hoffman
Head Cheerleading Coach Gregg Niemiec says Butler is one of the best tumblers on the team; it was his expertise that helped him avoid a worse accident. "He’s hardworking, focused and an all-around talent," Niemiec says. "Being an established tumbler, he kind of tucked and rolled at the right time to avoid something worse.”
Beam shares his story of his recovery and how he got back to cheering the rest of the season and is ready to cheer his senior year. "When I look back on it, I feel very lucky — not that it happened — but with an injury like that, it could have been a lot worse,” he says. “I was able to come back fast. I just feel grateful."
I grew up in Ankeny, Iowa, and started doing gymnastics at age 9 because many of my really close friends from elementary school were doing it. I nagged at my parents to let me try it, and I really liked it. I liked doing all the flips and being able to do things other people couldn’t.
Some of my gymnastics friends joined competitive cheerleading. I was like, “I don’t think I could do cheer.” My friends said, “Just come to one practice. If you hate it, you don’t have to come.” It came very naturally to me, and I was able to progress really fast, so I stuck with it. I joined the team at the University of Iowa my freshman year.
There's a lot of really unique opportunities that come with cheer: I like watching the sports up close, I've gone to a lot of away games, seen a lot of different football stadiums and campuses. I've gotten to go on some NCAA tournaments, a lot of bowl games. I really like the competitive side of cheerleading, when we go to UCA College Nationals every January and compete.
Avery Stahr
Austin Beam at an Iowa basketball game
The day I got hurt was January 21, 2025, the day after we gotten home from competing in Nationals. There were only a couple minutes left in the game. Everything was going well. The band started playing “The Lone Ranger” theme; they play it at every game, usually during one of the last time outs.
While they play, we all just tumble across the court and I was one of the last ones to go. I did two backflips and halfway through I just bailed; I went up and then went down and landed on my neck and shoulder.
Sometimes that stuff just happens; it just was unfortunate that it happened at a game and on the hardwood floor. When I landed, I knocked myself out. I was unconscious for around three to five minutes, they said.
The next thing I remember is one of the EMTs laying down on the ground face-to-face with me. He was asking me questions, and I was like, “What is he doing laying on the ground?” But I was also laying on the ground.
Since I landed on my head, they didn't want me to move. You don't want to make it worse. So I kind of just laid there and did what they said.
I fractured my shoulder blade —my scapula — and I had a pretty bad concussion.
Jeffrey Becker-Imagn Images
Austin Beam following his injury
I went home with my parents for a week, just to take a break from everything and be able to actually truly rest. But then I started feeling better, so I came back to campus.
Obviously with the concussion, my head hurt a lot, but I would say the big thing that I wasn't expecting was my shoulder. Anytime I flinched or moved my arm it hurt because it was right on that shoulder blade. It was very difficult to adapt to not moving it. But within a couple weeks it was starting to feel better and I had more mobility.
I was definitely on some pain meds and I was heating and icing it. But after a month or so, when it really started to heal, I was off the meds. I didn't need to heat or ice or anything. I was fine!
We had a lot of follow-up meetings with the doctors and physical trainers and they helped me slowly get back into moving my arm and getting mobility back. They did a really good job of working me back in and not just throwing me into it. It was definitely a buildup.
For physical therapy, at the beginning a lot of it was working on range-of-motion kind of stuff, getting that back. But once I had that, it was more focused on strength because it wasn't a muscle that I had torn or anything, it was a bone that fractured. So it was, “Once you get your strength back, you kind of get back into it.” It was a lot of strength training and time in the weight room.
Brian Ray/hawkeyesports.com
Austin Beam
The first time I tumbled since being back was at an open gym. My coaches were there and we just kind of slowly got back into it. I was kind of nervous, but not really — because I've been doing it for so long, It was muscle memory; I was like, “You just got to do it," and then I did it.
I know with me personally, if I get hurt doing something and I don't get back into it right away, I just won't get back into it. The fear will build up and cause more issues. When I got injured, I was at the end of my junior year and I knew I only had my senior year left to cheer. So I was like, “I don't want to waste time.” I wanted to get back.
I was able to come back and cheer at the NCAA tournament. I was back for March Madness and then I came back and finished practicing the rest of the season.
This summer we’ve been practicing as a team and it's been going really well. We've made a lot of progress. I've definitely worked out a lot more and stunted with some of my friends on the team to get back into it. If you text the coach, they'll come in to the gym with you, which is really nice. So we set up a decent amount of time for me to get in and just get back to work.
Avery Stahr
Austin Beam cheering on the field
I don’t know what went wrong that day in January. That's the question. At first a lot of people were telling me my hand slipped or my foot slipped, and I was like, “Oh, that's weird. I don't remember that,” obviously. But then I saw the video: I didn't slip or anything. I just made an error.
It's definitely happened to me before, not at a basketball game or anything like that. Usually it's just a fluke. It doesn't happen very often, so it's just unfortunate that it happened at the game on the hardwood. I don't see it happening again — knock on wood!
Avery Stahr
Austin Beam, University of Iowa Cheerleader
I’m definitely looking forward to football season. That's one of my favorite times of the year to cheer on the sidelines. Everyone's just really excited all day long, which is just exciting to be a part of. I'm very excited to cheer my senior year. It's a little bittersweet that it'll all come to an end, but I just want to make the most of it.
Mistakes will happen. It's inevitable with any sport, you'll get hurt, there'll be mistakes you make, but you can't just stop trying. You got to get back up. It'll always get better. Don’t give up, just get back out there.
on People
Source: “AOL Sports”