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Editorial
Reducing the risks for traumatic and overuse injury among competitive alpine skiers
  1. Matej Supej1,
  2. Veit Senner2,
  3. Nicola Petrone3,
  4. Hans-Christer Holmberg4,5
  1. 1Faculty of Sport, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia
  2. 2Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Technical University of Munich, Garching, Germany
  3. 3Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Padova, Padova, Italy
  4. 4Swedish Winter Sports Research Centre, Mid Sweden University, Östersund, Sweden
  5. 5School of Sport Sciences, UiT Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway
  1. Correspondence to Dr Matej Supej, Faculty of Sport, University of Ljubljana, Gortanova 22, Ljubljana 1000, Slovenia; matej.supej{at}fsp.uni-lj.si
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2016-096502

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    To achieve success, skiers attempt to optimise various biomechanical parameters (eg, trajectory, velocity, interaction between the skis and snow, energy) that influence performance,1 but this increases risk of injury.2 It is therefore not surprising that injuries are common among alpine skiers.3

    To reduce the injury rate, the International Ski Federation (FIS) regulates ski length and width, sidecut radius, and the distance between the foot and ground. In the case of slalom skis, only the minimal waist width is regulated (≥63 mm), while in other disciplines the maximal waist width is regulated by FIS (typically ≤65 mm). On hard snow, wider skis are associated with an elevated risk for injury,4 so we suggest that it may be wise to revise this FIS regulation.

    Measures concerning the geometry of skis implemented recently have contributed significantly to the 26% reduction in absolute injury rate (injuries/100 athletes/season) (risk ratio 0.74, 95% CI 0.63 to 0.87).3 We acknowledge that new regulations concerning helmets, the development …

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    Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/ This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/