Broken legs, skier’s thumb and ‘sled head’: just some of the injuries risked by Winter Olympians |
The sports featured at the Winter Olympics defy gravity and physics. Many competitors move at breakneck speeds down steep, snowy inclines or careen across icy surfaces in a bid to set world records and earn their place on the podium.
But as exciting as these events are for spectators, they also place competitors at serious risk of injury. This is something we have been reminded of after US alpine ski racer Lindsey Vonn fractured her leg during a horror crash just seconds into her downhill run in the Milan Cortina games.
Of course, this isn’t the first time a Winter Olympian has suffered injury at the Games. Four athletes have died during Winter Olympic events or in preparation for them – most recently, Georgian luge athlete Nodar Kumaritashvili, who died after colliding with a wall during a training run at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada.
But of the 15 sports disciplines featured at this year’s Winter Olympics, a few stand out in terms of their riskiness to competitors:
Of the snow-based events, skiing and snowboarding appear to be the most risky.
In alpine (downhill) skiing, there’s a 75% risk of professional athletes suffering at least one injury per season. And the majority of these are trauma injuries from a fall or collision. Male alpine skiers are at greater risk of overall injury and upper-body injuries, while women are a greater risk of knee injuries.
Video analysis of alpine skiing injuries shows that almost all occur when the skier is........