Mechanics and Injury Risk in Men's World Cup Alpine Skiing
Mechanics and Injury Risk in Men's World Cup Alpine Skiing
This study showed that the disciplines in WC alpine skiing are approximately equally dangerous per time unit. In contrast, the skiers' mechanical characteristics were significantly different. Therefore, it is likely that the causes and mechanisms of injury are different for the specific disciplines. In super-G and downhill, injuries might be mainly related to higher speed and jumps, while injuries in the technical disciplines might be related to a combination of turn speed and turn radius resulting in high loads. Therefore, future epidemiological and qualitative studies should pinpoint types of injuries and injury mechanics in each discipline to facilitate suitable injury-prevention measures for the specific disciplines.
Another interesting finding of this study is the fact that the number of injuries per 1000 runs showed a similar increase (from giant slalom to downhill) to the parameters of race duration and impulse. Hence, the recently reported higher number of injuries per 1000 runs in downhill might not only be explained by speed but also by a bias of total exposure time and thus potentially by the development of fatigue.
Summary
This study showed that the disciplines in WC alpine skiing are approximately equally dangerous per time unit. In contrast, the skiers' mechanical characteristics were significantly different. Therefore, it is likely that the causes and mechanisms of injury are different for the specific disciplines. In super-G and downhill, injuries might be mainly related to higher speed and jumps, while injuries in the technical disciplines might be related to a combination of turn speed and turn radius resulting in high loads. Therefore, future epidemiological and qualitative studies should pinpoint types of injuries and injury mechanics in each discipline to facilitate suitable injury-prevention measures for the specific disciplines.
Another interesting finding of this study is the fact that the number of injuries per 1000 runs showed a similar increase (from giant slalom to downhill) to the parameters of race duration and impulse. Hence, the recently reported higher number of injuries per 1000 runs in downhill might not only be explained by speed but also by a bias of total exposure time and thus potentially by the development of fatigue.
