Injuries among male and female World Cup alpine skiers

Abstract

Background: Limited knowledge exists on injuries among professional alpine skiers. Objective: To describe the risk of injury and the injury pattern among competitive World Cup alpine skiers during the competitive season. Methods: Retrospective interviews were performed with all World Cup athletes from 10 nations at the end of the 2006-7 and 2007-8 winter seasons, and all acute injuries occurring during the 4.5-month competitive season were recorded. If the athlete was not present, their coaches or medical personnel were interviewed. Results: A total of 191 acute injuries were recorded among 521 World Cup alpine skiers. As many as 86 injuries (45%) occurred during World Cup/World Ski Championship competitions, corresponding to an injury rate of 9.8 injuries per 1000 runs (95% CI 7.8 to 11.9). The injury rate was found to increase with increasing speed (slalom 4.9 injuries per 1000 runs, 95% CI 2.5 to 7.4-giant slalom 9.2, 5.1 to 13.3-super-G 11.0, 5.2 to 16.8-downhill 17.2, 11.6 to 22.7). The most frequently injured body part was the knee, with 68 injuries (36%), and 37 of these were severe. The overall injury rate was higher in males than in females, but not for knee injuries. Conclusions : The risk of injury among World Cup athletes in alpine skiing is even higher than previously reported. The knee is the most commonly injured body part and with many severe injuries. Injury rate increased with a higher speed and was higher among males than in females. While the injury risk for recreational skiers has been well documented based on prospective injury recording systems since the early 1970s, 1-3 there are almost no data published on the injury pattern and injury risk for competitive alpine skiers. Recent data on professional skiers competing in diverse disciplines from downhill with high speed, long jumps and minimal protection to slalom with technical demands are limited to two single-event studies (Olympic Games 1994 and Junior World Championships 1995).4 5 However, several crosssectional studies among active skiers have shown that 72-83% of world class skiers have sustained at least one previous serious injury. [6][7][8][9] Although these studies are decades old, they indicate that the risk of injuries is high.The aim of this study was therefore to describe the risk of injury and the injury pattern among competitive World Cup alpine skiers during the competitive season. METHODS Study design and populationWe conducted retrospective interviews with World Cup alpine skiers from 10 nations at the end of the 2006-7 and the 2007-8 winter seasons because a methodological study 10 found this to be the best method available to record injuries among World Cup ski and snowboard athletes. We defined the winter season as starting on 1 November or, if earlier, the first World Cup race of the season, lasting until the interviews took place. For the 2006-7 season, the first World Cup alpine event was in Levi, Finland on 11-12 November. The first races scheduled in Sölden, Austria 28-29 October were cancelled because o...

The Application of Medical Infrared Thermography in Sports Medicine

“…Knee injuries, especially ruptures of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), represent a significant problem in professional alpine skiing (Flørenes et al, 2009) as illustrated by the case of a 21-year-old skier. At 16 years the skier ruptured his left anterior cruciate ligament, medial collateral ligament and the medial meniscus.…”

Long-Term Effects of Knee Injuries in Former Ski Racers

“…Unfortunately, there is very little data on injury prevention programs in ski racing so far and to our knowledge. However, statistical evidence has been proven for only five of the risk factors, and only one prevention measure has been demonstrated to significantly reduce injury risk: Insufficient core strength [17], female sex [5,[17][18][19], high skill level' [16]; 'unfavorable genetic predisposition' [22]; and the combination of highly shaped, short, and wide skis [8]. To date, only the combination of less-shaped and longer skis with reduced profile width was statistically confirmed to have a positive effect on ACL-injury risk in alpine ski racing [8].…”

“…Flørenes et al found that the injury rates in the FIS World Cup during 2006-2008 were found to be 36.7 per 100 athletes [3]. All the studies conducted on ski racing, reported that the knee joint was the most commonly injured body part with a high number of ACL injuries, accounting for 28%-36% of all injuries [3][4][5][6][7][8].…”

Personality Traits in Swedish High School Alpine Skiers – A Comparison between Injured and Uninjured Skiers

“…Westin et al [15] demonstrated that almost 50% of all the skiers during their four year academic period were afflicted by one or more severe injuries. In another study interviewing 2121 world cup skiers and snowborders, 705 injuries were recorded [14]. One severe injury can end a skier's athletic career, so studying different aspects of this phenomenon seems to be very important in order to prevent alpine ski injuries.…”

“…For one athlete an injury can be seen as a failure and for another athlete as liberation. Because of the high risk of injury in competitive alpine skiing [14,15], it is important that the coaches work with their skiers to develop strategies that help the athletes to manage skiing without getting injured.…”