Information about a piece of news titled Every third freestyle skiing athlete sustains a time-loss injury each winter season
Every third freestyle skiing athlete sustains a time-loss injury each winter season
Intoduction
The aim of this study from the Oslo Sports Trauma Research Center was to describe the risk of injury and the injury pattern among competitive World Cup freestyle skiers in the different disciplines of ski cross, half pipe, moguls and aerials.
Freestyle skiing is a relatively new sport. There are no recent data describing the injuries the World Cup athletes sustain during the season. The International Ski Federation Injury Surveillance System was established prior to the 2006-07 winter season to increase our knowledge of injuries to elite skiers and snowboarders.
We interviewed a total of 662 skiers in the different disciplines and recorded 291 acute injuries during the 2006-07, 2007-08 and 2008-09 winter seasons. Of these were 93 (32%) severe with absence from training and competition >28 days. We used interviews to record injuries since a study found this to report the most complete picture of acute injuries sustained during the season by World Cup skiers and snowboarders.
There are a high number of injuries among World Cup freestyle skiers and every third athlete sustains a time-loss injury each winter season.
Knee injuries are most common followed by head injuries. Freestyle mogul skiers had fewer injuries compared to the other disciplines ski cross, half pipe and aerials. We found the same risk of for men and women for all injuries, as well as knee injuries.
This injury surveillance project was carried out by Tonje Flørenes, Stig Heir, Lars Nordsletten and Roald Bahr.