Oslo Sports Trauma Research Center

Intoduction

In her thesis ”Injury surveillance in World Cup skiing and snowboarding” Tonje Flørenes has shown that about one third of the World Cup alpine, freestyle and snowboard athletes sustain a time-loss injury each season. A particular concern was also the high proportion of severe injuries.

While the injury risk for recreational skiers and snowboarders has been well documented, there is almost no data published for the competitive level.

Based on concerns regarding injuries to the competitive athletes, the International Ski Federation (FIS) established an injury surveillance system.

The FIS injury surveillance system (FIS ISS) is a collaboration with the Oslo Sports Trauma Research Center and started prior to the 2006-07 winter season.

The objective of Flørenes´ PhD thesis was to identify, describe and analyze the injury risks and injury patterns in the different disciplines of alpine skiing, freestyle skiing, snowboarding, ski jumping, cross-country skiing and Nordic combined with a view to use this knowledge to reduce the risk of injuries among the athletes in the future.

Several objectives were answered in four papers, all published in international peer-reviewed journals:

- Injury recording (a methodological study):

To validate and compare possible ways of injury recording in competitive skiing and snowboarding, information regarding injuries sustained during the 2006-07 winter season was recorded through 3 separate and independent systems: prospective registration by selected medical teams, prospective injury recording by technical delegates from the FIS, and retrospective athlete interviews at the end of the season.

Results: Retrospective interviews with athletes/coaches regarding injuries during the last 6 months gave the most complete picture of injuries to World Cup skiers and snowboarders.

- Assessing the overall injury risk in World Cup skiing and snowboarding:

To increase our knowledge of injuries to the competitive skiers and snowboarders we interviewed 2121 athletes and recorded 705 injuries during the 2006-07 and 2007-08 winter seasons. The interviews were based on one to one interviews with all athletes present at the season ending events in all disciplines and with the coaches for athletes not present.

Results: About 1/3 of the World Cup alpine, freestyle and snowboard athletes sustain a time–loss injury each season, while the risk is low in the Nordic disciplines.

- The injury risk in the different disciplines of World Cup alpine and freestyle skiing and injury pattern in the different World Cup disciplines:

Results: In alpine skiing, we found the relative injury rate to increase with increasing speed (slalom 4.9 injuries per 1000 runs, giant slalom 9.2, super-G 11.0, downhill 17.2). In freestyle skiing, we found that mogul/dual moguls had the lowest injury rate 9.2 injuries per 1000 runs compared to the other disciplines (ski cross 18.5, aerials 19.2, halfpipe 23.9).

Severe knee injuries with absence >28 days dominated. ACL injuries were the most common specific diagnosis in both alpine and freestyle skiing with 38% of all knee injuries, however, no sex difference in knee injury rate was observed.

The main supervisors for Tonje were professor Roald Bahr and professor Lars Nordsletten. 

Read more about Tonje Flørenes projects.

Dissertation Committee

1. Opponent: Professor emeritus Robert J. Johnson, Department of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation, University of Vermont, College of Medicine, USA 

2. Opponent: Professor emeritus Per Renström, Department of Orthopedics, Karolinska Universitetssjukhus, Sweden                

3. Opponent: Professor Cecilie Røe, Institutt for klinisk medisin, Universitetet i Oslo

Head of the dissertation committee: Professor Jan Erik Madsen, Institutt for klinisk medisin, Universitetet i Oslo

Program

14.15 - 15.00 Trial lecture (November 18)
10.15 - 13:15 PhD presentation and defense (November 19)

WELCOME!