A non-dangerous sport?

Aside from medicine a major interest of mine is a sport of figure skating. As with many elite sports, the athletes at the very top level are pushing their bodies to the limit in the attempt for olympic Gold. I am aware that whilst I have chosen to focus on figure skating, the same could be said for any elite/professional sport, for example gymnastics.



Whilst this video was made in 2003, the issues still remain. Promising young talents are being forces to end their careers in their late teens or twenties due to hip and back injuries from constant jumping, forced flexiblity and repetitive falls.

In order to protect young skaters the International Skating Union (ISU) introduced a minimum age limit of 15/16 for championships such as Worlds, Europeans and Olympics. A skater must be 15 by the previous July 1st, therefore most will be 16 by the world championships, held in March. This issue has sparked controversy, particularly in Ladies skating. In 2008, 3 of the top 4 ladies at the US championships were too young to go to the Worlds. In 2006 a young Japanese phenom, Mao Asada beat all 3 of the eventual olympic medallists at one point in the season but was 87 days to young to go to Torino. The 1994 and 1998 olympic ladies champions were also both 15 years old at the time they won.



One of the most dangerous disciplines in figure skating is the Pairs event due to the high risk throws and overhead lifts. Although in the 2008-09 seasion all 3 of the world medallists in Ice Dance (considered safer due to the lack of jumps) had missed part of the season due to injury. The 2008 world champions were unable to defend their title as they too were injured. There have been some terrible injuries and accidents in figure skating as a result of the risks taken to achieve perfection.



So what can be done to protect elite and recreational athletes? As Olympic Champion Alexei Yagudin said in the first video here, very little! It is nigh-on impossible to stop young athletes pushing themselves to the limit in the hope of being the best in the world. Every year the standard required to be competitive on the world scene gets higher. Many female skaters and gymnasts reach their peak prior to puberty and teenage growth spirts.

Kimmie Meissner, the 2006 World Champion at 16 has had a heartbreaking fall from the top of the sport since then (More here).
In Beijing 2008 the tiny chinese gymnasts sparked controversy over their official ages when they beat the more mature, taller, curvier USA team.

Can we reverse this trend? Are we limiting the progress of sport in the attempt to protect the young?