Team USA Olympic medalist Nyjah Huston has started 2026 in hospital with a fractured skull after a skateboarding trick went badly wrong.

The 31-year-old, who won bronze in street skating for America at the 2024 Paris Games, was attempting to perform a trick in Tempe, Arizona this week when things went awry very quickly.

Sharing the news with his 5.2 million Instagram followers, Huston wrote: 'A harsh reminder how death defying skating massive rails can be. 

'Fractured skull, fractured eye socket. Taking it one day at a time. I hope yall had a better new years [than] me. We live to fight another day.'

Alongside the caption was a series of scary photos that showed medics tending to him on the sidewalk, as well as Huston laid up in a hospital bed with a huge black eye.

In some photos, blood can be seen on the ground next to the stricken skateboarder, demonstrating the dangers of the sport even to the very best at it.

On social media, plenty of big names weighed in to wish him well, including perhaps the most iconic skater of all-time, Tony Hawk.

'Heavy', he wrote, adding: 'Stay strong. We know you'll be back.'

Others pushed for more safety measures in skateboarding, with one commenter picking up 5,000 likes for noting: 'Time to make helmets cool.' 

Huston is one of the most decorated skaters in US history, having performed at two Olympic Games and countless world championships.

He has seven World Championship gold medals, and 13 gold medals in the Summer X Games. 

It is not the first time Huston has worried his fans with a scary injury, with another serious incident occurring last March.

In fact, it was so bad he was forced to clarify that his manhood was still intact after sharing gruesome details of the injury.

Huston had initially left fans concerned when he posted a photo from a hospital bed, before uploading a graphic image of blood in a toilet bowl.

'Started p***ing blood after a very solid sack on a rail,' he wrote. 'Starting to feel better now. Hit so hard that I have a small fracture. Be back soon.'

As a result, a number of Nyjah's followers jumped to the conclusion that he had fractured his private parts.

But the Olympian quickly took to Instagram again to insist that is not the case, with his pubic bone - located between the abdomen and the thighs - instead suffering the damage.

'I guess I should have made it a little more clear that no, I did not fracture my d***,' he said in a video message. 

'I don't even know if that's possible, but it says right here... "non-displaced fracture of the right inferior pubic bone."

'So that's that. I've gotta chill for a bit.'