Alpine skiing

The International Paralympic Committee has been promoting the development of evidence-based classification to reduce the subjectivity in current decision-making systems. The current study aimed to evaluate the validity of the impairment and performance tests for para-alpine sit skiing classification, and whether cluster analysis of the measures would produce a valid classification structure. Thirty-eight para-alpine sit skiers with different disabilities completed seven tests. During these tests, isometric trunk strength, trunk muscle excitation, trunk range of movement (ROM), and simulated skiing performance (board tilt angle) were assessed...

In recreational alpine skiing, an ACL injury represents the most common injury. Skiing is a complex activity where the skier interacts with the environment, such as weather, snow conditions, temperature, etc. Thus, the aim of this study was to evaluate the potential impact of environmental factors on ACL injury risk in recreational alpine skiers. Among a cohort of 392 ACL-injured skiers and 392 uninjured controls matched for sex and skiing skill, environmental factors were collected by questionnaire. Factors included weather conditions, snow conditions, perceived temperature, and slope difficulty at the time-point of the accident (ACL-injured skiers) or of questioning during the ski day (uninjured controls)...

PURPOSE: Para-alpine sit skiers face unique challenges in balance control due to their disabilities and the use of sit skis. This study assessed their multi-joint coordination before and after slackline training. METHODS: Nine alpine sit skiers (6 M/3 F; 27 ± 8 years; height: 168.3 ± 6.0 cm; body mass: 55.4 ± 6.9 kg) with different disabilities (LW10-LW12) volunteered for the experiment...

BACKGROUND: For elite professional soccer players and alpine skiers, injuries associated with anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) rupture, such as meniscal, cartilage, or collateral ligament lesions, could result in a delayed return to sport compared with isolated ACL injury. PURPOSE/HYPOTHESIS: The purpose of the study was to provide a detailed description of associated injuries at the time of primary ACL reconstruction in elite soccer players and alpine skiers. It was hypothesized that soccer players and skiers would present different typical injury patterns due to different injury mechanisms...

This study examines constituent year effect (CYE) and race performance among junior alpine skiers in the World Championships. In various junior age cohorts competing together, variation in skiing performance can be expected not only due to practice load and experience but also due to inter-individual differences in physical and psychological maturation. Within a one-year cohort, this effect has been referred to as the birth month effect or the relative age effect (RAE). In cohorts with multiple age bands, the effect is termed the constituent year effect (CYE)...

Snow sports such as alpine skiing or snowboarding are associated with a high risk of injury and reinjury and are subject to a very special environment with specific rehabilitation challenges that must be addressed. Due to geographic decentralisation, seasonal climatic limitations, alternation of training in off-snow and on-snow settings and unique loading patterns of practising these sports, special rehabilitation structures and processes are required compared with other sports. In addition, returning to preinjury performance requires a high level of confidence and a resumption of risk-taking in demanding situations such as high-speed skiing and high-amplitude jumps...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Cervical/lumbar total disk replacements (TDRs) are often performed for degenerative conditions but rarely in athletes. Therefore, we sought to conduct a systematic review of athletes undergoing TDRs of both the scientific literature and lay press, with an emphasis on contact sport athletes. METHODS: In accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis guidelines, PubMed/Embase/Cochrane/Scopus/Web of Science databases were queried for all primary literature reporting TDRs in athletes, including both cervical/lumbar disk replacements (CDRs/LDRs)...

Snow-farming is one of the adaptive strategies used to face the snow deficit in ski resorts. We studied the impact of a shifting snow-farming technique on a pasture slope in Adelboden, Switzerland. Specifically, we compared plots covered by a compressed snow pile for 1.5, 2.5 or 3.5 years, which then recovered from the snow cover for three, two or one vegetation seasons, respectively, with control plots situated around the snow pile. In plots with >1.5 years of compressed snow pile, plant mortality was high, recovery of vegetation was very slow, and few plant species recolonized the bare surface...

Objective: Alpine skiing requires complex motor skills and fine adjustments to maintain balance in dynamic and challenging conditions. This study aimed to understand whether the balance ability in unspecific (UST) and sport-specific (SST) tasks could depend on the skiers' ranking level. The balance performance of the dominant and non-dominant limbs in the SST was also investigated. Methods: Twenty-five skiers (14.96 ± 1.61 yrs; 1.69 ± 0.69 m; 59.9 ± 9.52 kg) were divided into high-ranking (position < 50) and low-ranking (position > 50) groups...

UNLABELLED: Ski touring on groomed slopes is a relatively new outdoor sport that has steadily been gaining interest. So far, little scientific attention has been given to this outdoor activity. Thus, few questions have been asked about the motivation for practising this sport, and even fewer about whether the current COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact on the frequency of and motivation for ski touring. For this reason, we conducted a large-scale study (n = 6802) in the Austrian Alps...

INTRODUCTION: Alpine ski boots enable rapid and precise force transfer between skier and ski while carving. These boots are made of rigid plastic and fit tightly commonly through four buckles. Such a fit can improve speed and control but also pain and discomfort. In athletic footwear, alterations to the upper designed to wrap the foot improve performance during rapid changes of direction and during trail running. The purpose of this study was to systematically evaluate the performance and fit of two different ski boot shell closure mechanisms: a BOA closure and a Buckle closure...

PURPOSE: To determine the utility of countermovement-jump and Keiser leg-press tests for tracking changes in elite athletes of different sports. METHODS: Elite athletes of the Norwegian Olympic Federation (126 individuals from 18 sports) performed countermovement-jump and Keiser tests on 2 to 11 occasions between 2014 and 2021. Separate analyses were performed for male and female alpine skiing, male and female handball, male ice hockey, and males and females of other sports...

Among high-speed sports, an increased number of high-speed injuries have been observed in alpine downhill racing. We report the case of a young professional ski racer who sustained a shoulder dislocation with an avulsion of the axillary nerve during a World Cup race. After initial treatment was provided for the shoulder dislocation, the patient was left with abduction weakness and a sensory deficit in the region of the deltoid muscle. She underwent electrophysiological and clinical examinations and visited our centre with delay...

BACKGROUND: Between 3-15% of winter sports-related injuries are attributed to head injury, which is the primary cause of mortality and disability among skiers. Despite the widespread adoption of helmets in winter sports, which has been proven to reduce the incidence of direct head injury, there is a paradoxical trend where an increasing number of individuals wearing helmets are sustaining diffuse axonal injuries (DAI), which can result in severe neurological sequelae. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed 100 cases collected by the senior author of this work from 13 full winter seasons during the 1981-1993 period and compared them with the 17 patients admitted during the more 2019-2020 ski season shortened due to COVID-19...

BACKGROUND: In recreational alpine skiing ACL injury risk depends on the interaction of individual characteristics and behaviours as well as on equipment-related factors. AIM: to evaluate if and to what extent personal characteristics and equipment-related parameters are associated with ACL injury risk in cautious and risk-taking recreational alpine skiers. METHODS: A retrospective questionnaire-based, case-control study of ACL-injured and uninjured in a cohort of cautious as well as risk-taking recreational skiers was conducted...

In alpine skiing, estimation of the muscle forces and joint loads such as the forces in the ACL of the knee are essential to quantify the loading pattern of the skier during turning maneuvers. Since direct measurement of these forces is generally not feasible, non-invasive methods based on musculoskeletal modeling should be considered. In alpine skiing, however, muscle forces and ACL forces have not been analyzed during turning maneuvers due to the lack of three dimensional musculoskeletal models. In the present study, a three dimensional musculoskeletal skier model was successfully applied to track experimental data of a professional skier...

BACKGROUND: The incidence of injuries on alpine ski slopes have been assessed using various methods. A decline in injury rate has been observed throughout the literature; however, the actual incidence remains unclear. The purpose of this study was therefore to evaluate the incidence of skiing and snowboarding injuries using large-sample data from an entire geographic state. METHODS: Data on alpine injuries over the course of five winter seasons between 2017 and 2022 were prospectively collected from the emergency service dispatch center of Tyrol (Austria)...

The current study is an exploratory, secondary data analysis of a selection of physiological and biomechanical fitness components used to assess elite alpine skiers. The present study will provide new knowledge that can be used to aid training prescription and talent identification. A hierarchical cluster analysis was used to identify groups of variables that are crucial for elite alpine skiers and differences based on sex and competition level. The key findings of the study are the patterns that emerged in the generated dendrograms...

There is a lack of reviews covering the topic of the parallel high prevalence of injuries in female winter sport elite athletes. We aimed to review the data on incidence and patterns of injuries in female athletes participating in official competitions of winter sports. We conducted a comprehensive literature search on epidemiological data and etiological information on alpine skiing, snowboarding, ski jumping and cross-country skiing. The most common location of injury was the knee among skiers and ski jumpers and the incidence of severe ACL events was 7...

In epidemiological studies related to winter sports, especially alpine skiing, an unresolved methodological challenge is the quantification of actual on-snow activity exposure. Such information would be relevant for reporting meaningful measures of injury incidence, which refers to the number of new injuries that occur in a given population and time period. Accordingly, accurate determination of the denominator, i.e., actual "activity exposure time", is critical for injury surveillance and reporting. In this perspective article, we explore the question of whether wearable sensors in combination with mHealth applications are suitable tools to accurately quantify the periods in a ski day when the skier is physically skiing and not resting or using a mechanical means of transport...