Sports injuries and illnesses during the London Summer Olympic Games 2012

Abstract

BackgroundThe Olympic Movement Medical Code encourages all stakeholders to ensure that sport is practised without danger to the health of the athletes. Systematic surveillance of injuries and illnesses is the foundation for developing preventive measures in sport.AimTo analyse the injuries and illnesses that occurred during the Games of the XXX Olympiad, held in London in 2012.MethodsWe recorded the daily occurrence (or non-occurrence) of injuries and illnesses (1) through the reporting of all National Olympic Committee (NOC) medical teams and (2) in the polyclinic and medical venues by the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games’ (LOCOG) medical staff.ResultsIn total, 10 568 athletes (4676 women and 5892 men) from 204 NOCs participated in the study. NOC and LOCOG medical staff reported 1361 injuries and 758 illnesses, equalling incidences of 128.8 injuries and 71.7 illnesses per 1000 athletes. Altogether, 11% and 7% of the athletes incurred at least one injury or illness, respectively. The risk of an athlete being injured was the highest in taekwondo, football, BMX, handball, mountain bike, athletics, weightlifting, hockey and badminton, and the lowest in archery, canoe slalom and sprint, track cycling, rowing, shooting and equestrian. 35% of the injuries were expected to prevent the athlete from participating during competition or training. Women suffered 60% more illnesses than men (86.0 vs 53.3 illnesses per 1000 athletes). The rate of illness was the highest in athletics, beach volleyball, football, sailing, synchronised swimming and taekwondo. A total of 310 illnesses (41%) affected the respiratory system and the most common cause of illness was infection (n=347, 46%).ConclusionsAt least 11% of the athletes incurred an injury during the games and 7% of the athletes’ an illness. The incidence of injuries and illnesses varied substantially among sports. Future initiatives should include the development of preventive measures tailored for each specific sport and the continued focus among sport bodies to institute and further develop scientific injury and illness surveillance systems.

Combat Sports Injuries in Well-Trained Athletes during African Games 2015 in Brazzaville, Congo

“…The present study was initiated to identify the secondary traumatisms with the In comparison, taekwondo had the highest injury frequency with 39.1% during the London Games while in archery, canoe slalom and sprint, track cycling, rowing, shooting and equestrian sport less than 5% of athletes were injured (Engebresten, Soligard, Steffen et al, 2013). Our frequency of injuries in taekwondo, equal to 17.2%, is significantly higher (p = 0.032).…”

“…Our frequency of injuries in taekwondo, equal to 17.2%, is significantly higher (p = 0.032). Compared with other Olympic combat sports, judo time loss injury frequency of 6% -9% during the last two SOGs was clearly lower than in taekwondo (16% -18%) but slightly higher than in boxing (4% -8%) and wrestling (5% -6%), respectively (Junge, Engebretsen, Mountjoy et al, 2009;Engebresten, Soligard, Steffen et al, 2013).…”

“…Despite those differences, studies have shown that most combat sports can be characterized as high-intensity, intermittent sports (Campos, Bertuzzi, Dourado, et al, 2012;Artioli, Gualano, Franchini et al, 2009;Franchini, Del Vecchio, Matsushigue et al, 2011;Terbizan & Selievold, 1996;Del Vecchio, Hirata, & Franchini, 2011). Consequently, injury risk had been consistently high in these athletes (Kobayashi, Kanamura, Koshida et al, 2010), even if the International Olympic Committee initiated and developed the injury and illness surveillance system during the 2008 Beijing and 2012 London Olympics (Junge, Engebretsen, Mountjoy et al, 2009;Engebresten, Soligard, Steffen et al, 2013). In the literature, a few prospective and retrospective studies as well as case reports dealing with combat injuries are available (Souza, Monteiro, Del Vecchio et al, 2006;Green, Petrou, Fogarty-Hover et al, 2007;Pierantozzi & Muroni, 2009) …”

Is elite sport a driver for medical advance?

“…London 2012 Olympics is an excellent indicator of injury prevalence in contemporary elite sport. In a study of 2012 Olympic games, 10,568 athletes were monitored over the 17 day period and it was found that there where 1361 injuries (11% of athletes had at least one injury) (Engebretsen et al, 2013). In the same study, there were 24 fractures and some 35% of injuries resulted in prevention of competition or training.…”

Handball Sports Medicine

“…This popularity also enjoys an equal distribution between the men's and women's game, which unfortunately is still rarely seen in other sports. These changes have also influenced the physiologic aspects of the game as well as the injury profile in the sport, which emerged as one of the most injury-prone ball sports [4,5]. The growing need for an appropriate scientific and medical envelope to support the game became evident; however, these aspects lagged behind those provided for other popular ball sports such as football, basketball, and rugby, a fact portrayed quite distinctively in the much lower number of scientific studies and English-language scientific publications in handball compared to these other sports.…”