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Comedian Kevin Hart says he is in a wheelchair after trying to “do some young man stuff” — and challenging friend and former NFL running back Stevan Ridley to a race.
“I got to be the stupidest man alive,” Hart said in an Instagram video posted Wednesday.
“Ladies and gentleman, the age 40 is real,” he said. “All my men, women out there that are 40 years old and above — it’s not a game, respect that age … Or that age will make you respect it.”
“Me and Steven got into a little debate. This debate was based off of who was faster,” Hart, 44, said as he recalled how the two men decided to bet on the outcome of a 40-yard dash.
But Hart says he was left the worse for wear after taking on the 34-year-old former New England Patriots player, adding that he tore his lower abdomen and abductors — muscles found in the hip: “I don’t even know what that is, but I tore them. I tore those too,” he said. “I can’t walk.”
Celebrities including Jamie Foxx sent messages of support in the comments, while his wife later joked on Instagram: “I bet next time you’ll listen to me!”
Ridley responded in a light-hearted video on Instagram, saying: “It’s really not my fault. … I tried to warn you, and I didn’t want to do it.” Ridley also shared a video that appeared to show part of the race on his Instagram stories.
In another video, posted Thursday, Hart added that he would require around six to eight weeks to recover.
Despite Hart’s many comments about his age, research has actually consistently found that feeling younger is usually associated with better health. And plenty of athletes have continued to compete — well into their 80s.
Feeling younger than your age may be good for your health
Runner’s World joked: “We wish Hart a speedy recovery, but respectfully disagree that he’s ‘the stupidest man alive’ for trying to reach top speed over the age of 40. He probably just didn’t warm up properly.”
Hart may still have struggled to beat Ridley, who had high school personal bests of 11.25 seconds for the 100 meters and 23.42 seconds for the 200 meters, the website added — but at least he might “not have left the track in a wheelchair.”
Hart has hit back at friends and athletes who he said had queried his fitness, saying in an Instagram video that his injuries had “nothing to do with being in shape. When’s the last time that you have run an all-out sprint? I’m talking about a hard-effort run, giving it all you got.”
Hart was involved in a car accident in 2019, and said in an interview the following year that doctors told him he would have been paralyzed had he not been in such good physical shape.
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Source link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2023/08/25/kevin-hart-wheelchair-race-stevan-ridley-nfl/