Celebrating 20/20: Micha Hancock’s Recovery Ahead of LOVB Pro

Volleyball? Ringing the bell the next day on Wall Street?

No, Micha Hancock was just hoping she would see out of her left eye again. 

Things were that bad early Sunday morning, August 12, in Paris, barely 10 hours after the USA women took home silver medals.

"It was literally like the highest and the lowest," Micha said. "I thought I was going to lose my left eye."

Micha and fellow USA veteran Jordan Larson went out to celebrate. It was the wee hours and they had an early flight to New York. They hailed an Uber and headed back to the Olympic village until, suddenly and without warning, they crashed into a pole. 

Micha's head lurched forward and hit the headrest in front of her with tremendous force.

"I was really caught off guard. It's Jordan's ride and I was putting in the directions and as soon as I felt [the driver] make a sharp turn I looked up and ... "

"The blood was coming out pretty hard," Jordan said.

Jordan got banged up, too, nothing like what happened to Micha.

"We weren't going that fast, but I look over at her and she's gushing blood," Jordan said. "And I was like, oh, my gosh, what just happened?' It happened so fast and it was early in the morning."

The good news is that both Micha, who will set for LOVB Houston, and Jordan, an outside hitter for LOVB Omaha, are OK and ready for the season. Micha, the former Penn State star, is training in Houston; Jordan, the legendary product of Nebraska, still has about another month coaching at her alma mater before joining her LOVB team full-time.

Back to the crash. Emergency responders put Micha into a neck brace "because they didn't know what was going on and I had contusions on my neck and a broken nose and my eye ... I knew it was bad when I didn't feel pain. I got rocked and I didn't feel pain; it was terrifying."

She spoke softly while recalling the situation.

"I had bruising all over, my head was like jelly, it was so swollen," she said, touching the left side of her head as she described it. "The inside of my gums were all black and blue. My chin was swollen. It was nuts."

And her eye was completely swollen shut.

"The impact was so hard they didn't know if it was nerve damage or muscle damage," Micha recalled.
Jordan said she started analyzing and making sure they were safe.

"I was trying to call anyone and everyone and making sure the surroundings around us were somewhat safe," Jordan said. "As soon as we stopped, there were police on us the whole time, so I just made sure that I had both of our phones in my hand and that she was OK."

Jordan kept trying to call anyone she could get from the USA Volleyball contingent and eventually made contact with athletic trainer Kara Kessans and team doctor Dr. Lori Boyajian-O’Neill, who met them at the hospital.

"I was in a state of shock, but I was like it's fine, we'll figure it out. It didn't really faze me, which I'm kind of shocked by," Jordan added with a laugh. "... Like with volleyball injuries, I'm not usually the one to support. I'm the one who can't watch."

Jordan wasn't going to let Micha out of her sight. Two ambulances arrived but Jordan insisted on being in the same one with her teammate.

At the hospital, they got CT scans, Jordan recalled. "For me, it was more my neck. I got hit in the head but not that hard, but for her it was also her nasal cavity and neck as well. We stayed in the hospital for the night. Her sister Kelsey and Kelsey’s partner arrived and gave support until I was released."

Jordan was supposed to be on the flight to New York but chose to instead return home to Nebraska.

Micha didn't get out of the hospital until later Monday. 

"Luckily Kelsey and her partner changed their flights so I wouldn't be there alone. It's the worst thing being in the emergency room when you don't speak the same language," said Micha, whose long pro career has taken her primarily to Italy. 

"Italian might have been easier, but I didn't know what they were saying in French. They were very sweet and very kind, but it was not the ideal situation."

When she got to the hotel, "I was finally able to shower. I had blood just sopped into my pants. I was just sitting in it."

And those pants?

"They were our ceremony pants, the ones we were on the podium with. And I was like, 'I'm not throwing these away. I'm gonna wash them.' My shoes had blood splattered all over them."

She spent that Monday night in a hotel.

"The next afternoon, I got up and tried to eat but couldn't because I was sore.

"And then I had to get into another Uber to go to the airport and I was just shaking."

Kelsey was with Micha, as were all of Micha’s newly acquired eyedrops and meds. The pair settled into Kelsey’s home in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

"I sat on the couch for like seven days and didn't do a single thing," said Micha, happy to be reunited with her cat, Klaus, who stays with her sister when she's gone, which is a lot.

Soon after, Micha posted on Instagram, “Alright guys, here I am. Car wreck after Paris 2024 concluded. My Uber driver hit a pole on the way to the hotel after a night out with the team. Luckily @gov1007 (Jordan) was there with me. She took care of me. Things happen fast guys … take care of yourselves. Wear your seatbelts. Definitely walking away from this happy to be alive. Have some injuries but should recover within months.”

Micha, who said she still has pain in her sinus, couldn't sit still for long in Tulsa. After five or six days she went for a long walk, then a jog and finally ran. 

"The time and money I had to spend going to doctors and insurance and other things, it's been rather taxing," Micha said. "I'm just happy to have my vision."

And now she's ready for the inaugural LOVB season.

A two-time Olympic medalist, Micha is now poised to be a home-country leader for LOVB Houston, especially heading into the holidays. Her international experience -- she's played in Puerto Rico, Italy, Poland and the past seven years back in Italy -- gives her insight into a LOVB team that has seven foreigners, the opposite of what she's been used to.

"It will be good for all of us to hang out. I would watch girls have plans after our games, like 'I'm going to see my family,' or 'I'm going to see my friends on this team.' And now I get to do that, but it also offers me a lens. I want to make sure our foreigners have plans for Thanksgiving and say to them, 'What are guys doing? And if you need help, let us know. We can help.'

"Because we've felt that low when you don't have plans and your teammates disappear."

Micha’s still here, though, as is her vision. She and her LOVB Houston teammates make their LOVB debuts Thursday, January 9 at home against LOVB Austin.