Olympic sports that harm the body and cause injuries

AAthletes are competitive by nature, so when they come together for a major sporting event like the Olympics, there’s bound to be a bit of good-natured one-upmanship when it comes to which event is the toughest.

Yes, it’s a bit of a parlor game and everyone has an opinion. But although the difficulty is somewhat subjective, there are they are ways to stratify sports that could begin to isolate which sports cause the greatest harm to the body – by the greatest number of injuries suffered by athletes, by the types of injuries they develop, and by which injuries tend to have the greatest long-term impacts. -term of health.

This data, unfortunately, is not as complete as it could be. The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) runs several national training centers, but not all sports take advantage of them. And the USOPC does not record overall injuries suffered by Team USA athletes, as they are collected by individual national sports organizations – USA Gymnastics, for example, or USA Rugby. Still, during the two weeks of each Olympic and Paralympic Games, the USOPC has the entire universe of North American athletes competing in 32 sports under its purview, and similarly, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) also monitors injuries. during the Olympic Games and reports on them in British Journal of Sports Medicine.

Sports physiologists divide sports into two broad categories: those that involve direct physical contact (combat or collision sports), which include those that involve dangerous equipment such as bicycles or horses and can cause traumatic injuries, and those that test the body’s ability. resistance skills, which are more likely to cause chronic problems from overuse. Injury information collected by the IOC during the Olympic Games is biased toward traumatic or acute injuries because “overuse injuries tend to happen before the Games or after the Games,” says Dr. Jonathan Finnoff, USOPC chief medical officer. . According to the IOC, at the last Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo, the sport with the highest injury rate was boxing, with almost 14% of boxers requiring medical care during the Games, followed by 12.5% ​​of sport climbers and 11% of skateboarders. “Generally speaking, during the Olympic Games, high-speed, high-force, high-air or combat sports cause the most injuries,” says Finnoff. During the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, BMX cyclists topped the list with 38%, followed by boxing with 30%, mountain biking with 25% and water polo and rugby both with 19%. Among Team USA athletes, more than half of the rugby players suffered injuries at the last Summer Games, while about half of the wrestlers and divers did.

But that doesn’t mean swimmers or marathon runners are safe – chronic injuries from repetitive movements in their sports are more likely to cause problems that may not show up until years later because they are harder to identify and harder to treat. . “Traumatic injuries like muscle tears and broken bones can be fixed,” says Dr. Alexis Colvin, professor of sports medicine at Mount Sinai, “while chronic overuse issues sometimes persist and are not necessarily something that can be fixed.” ”.

Both types of injuries can have long-term health effects, although it is difficult to know specifically what impact Olympic-level training and competition has on the body, as no sports group collects detailed information about these athletes after they are finished. of their competitive careers. Research continues to show, however, that any acute injury, such as a broken bone, muscle tear, or joint damage, can cause problems in the future. “Repetitive damage can lead to an increasing incidence of negative long-term outcomes, including severe arthritis and even the need for early joint replacement,” says Finnoff.

Leaving aside injuries that happen during competition, if you consider sports by how many different parts of the body are at risk of being injured at the same time, Dr. Robert Gallo, professor of orthopedic sports medicine at Penn State University, says that a sport stands out for its potential for acute and chronic problems. “Personally, I think gymnastics combines the two,” he says. “You can land on your head or on your feet, and they also have a lot of chronic injuries that people don’t see much of. Every joint in gymnastics is subject to problems.”

Add to this the fact that most gymnasts start training early and the impact on the body is quite substantial. “Gymnasts need to have body awareness before they go through puberty, so that’s one of the reasons they start early,” says Mary Barron, associate professor of exercise and nutrition at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health. “If you start a sport at 2 years old and practice until you’re 20, that’s a lot of wear and tear on your body.”

But this increased risk does not mean that injuries are inevitable. “We talk about the bodies of elite athletes in training in terms of green, yellow and red lights,” says Dr. Matthew Silvis, director of sports medicine at Penn State University, referring to the amount of pain athletes feel and to your ability to finish and recover from your daily workouts. “Green means you feel amazing and can continue training without any problems. Red means you can’t finish your workout for the day because you’re in too much pain and won’t get better the next day. Most athletes live in yellow – they feel fine, even though they have aches and pains during training, but they can complete their training and not feel worse the next day.” Knowing when yellow changes to red is essential to prevent injuries and keep the athlete training at optimal levels for as long as possible.

For long-distance runners, for example, increasingly painful workouts heading into the red zone might mean switching from outdoor running routes to an underwater treadmill to reduce pressure on joints, or focusing on aerobic exercise to maintain this aspect of your performance by reducing the time spent pounding away. in muscles and bones.

Barron notes that constant improvements in technology also help athletes and their coaches better protect themselves against injuries. Videos of how basketball players land after jumps, for example, can help identify those who tend to over-flex their knees beyond their toes when they hit the ground, which can increase the risk of ACL injuries. Strengthening other muscles to avoid excessive bending can go a long way toward preventing these injuries.

And it’s not just technique that can play a role in preventing injuries – paying attention to things like nutrition and sleep can also be important, especially “to reset the body and give you the best chance of not getting injured,” says Silvis. . “The model of sport is to be active for the rest of your life,” says Barron. “The information we get every year changes what we do the following year, so the way we take care of and try to avoid injuries is very different now than it was four years ago. And this will help them stay healthier beyond their careers as Olympic athletes.” Which still doesn’t mean any of this is easy.