Injury characteristics of young elite inline speed skaters: A one season retrospective study

ABSTRACT

Objectives

Determining the rate of injuries related to a certain sport is accepted as the primary step toward designing, implementing and evaluating injury prevention programs. This observational and retrospective study was to examine the injuries sustained by elite young Spanish inline speed skaters during a season.

Methods

Athletes participating in the national championship (n = 80) were surveyed via an anonymous online questionnaire to screen for injury characteristics: incidence, location, and tissue affected; plus training information and demographics.

Results

A total of 52 injuries were recorded across 33,351 hours of exposure, which gives a rate of 1.65/1,000 h. The lower body comprised 79% of the total amount of injuries (1.3/1000 h), and the main areas affected were the thigh and foot, accounting for 25% and 19.2% of the recorded injuries, respectively. Musculotendinous injuries were the most frequent, with an incidence of 0.92/1000 h. No significant gender differences were observed for any of the variables studied.

Conclusion

Speed skating can be considered a low injury rate sport based on our findings. The risk of sustaining an injury was independent of gender, age, and BMI.

KEYWORDS:

• Athletic injuries
• female athletes
• incidence
• risk factors

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank all participating athletes.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributors

Marcos Quintana-Cepedal is a Sport physical therapist. Mr Quintana has a Master in physical therapy and sports rehabilitation and now is in his 1st year as a PhD student at the University of Oviedo.

Miguel A. Rodríguez is a physical therapy professional specialist in patients with disabilities, Mr Rogríguez has a Master in Healthy Ageing and Quality of Life at the University of León.

Nerea Nuño-Iglesias is a professional inline speed skating athlete, and she is graduated in physical therapy, specialized in Sport rehabilitation.

Irene Crespo got her PhD. in Biology, and she is an associate professor of Human Physiology at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at the University of Oviedo.

Miguel del Valle is the President of the Spanish Sport Medicine Society. Dr. del Valle is a professor of Biomechanics at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at the University of Oviedo.

Hugo Olmedillas got his PhD. in exercise physiology and he is an associate professor of Physical Activity and Health at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at the University of Oviedo. His research interests focus on physical activity, exercise and health in diverse populations.

Trial registration

ClinicalTrials.gov, ID: NCT05175183. 3 January 2022.

Additional information

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors