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Editorial
Behind the podium and the glory: the IOC Olympian Health Cohort
  1. Debbie Palmer1,2,
  2. Torbjørn Soligard3,
  3. Lars Engebretsen3,4
  1. 1 Edinburgh Sports Medicine Research Network, Institute for Sport, PE and Health Sciences, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
  2. 2 UK Collaborating Centre on Injury and Illness Prevention in Sport (UKCCIIS), The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
  3. 3 Medical and Scientific Department, International Olympic Committee, Lausanne, Switzerland
  4. 4 Department of Sports Medicine, Norwegian School of Sport Sciences, Oslo Sports Trauma Research Center, Oslo, Norway
  1. Correspondence to Dr Debbie Palmer, Edinburgh Sports Medicine Research Network; Institute for Sport, PE and Health Sciences, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH4 1HE, UK; dpalmer{at}ed.ac.uk

https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2023-106830

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    Taking part in sport and exercise confers a number of health benefits helping people live longer and healthier lives. However, sport participation—particularly at the elite level—is also associated with an increased risk of musculoskeletal injury and, in some cases, illnesses. Sport injury and illness prevention and the protection of athlete health have long been key mandates for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and since 2008 organisations such as the IOC and other international sport federations have regularly conducted in-games surveillance studies. Hence, much is known about the occurrence and nature of elite athlete injuries and illnesses during major sporting events such as the Olympics and Paralympics; the football, rugby and skiing/snowboarding World Cups; and the athletics and swimming World Championships; to name a few. Across multiple Olympic Games over the last 12 years (between Beijing 2008 and Tokyo 2020) reported injury incidences have ranged between 9% and 14% of all athletes and illness rates between 4% and 9% of all athletes.1

    Similarly, there is a growing body of knowledge …

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    Footnotes

    • Twitter @DebbiePalmerOLY, @TSoligard, @larsengebretsen

    • Contributors DP drafted the initial version of the manuscript. All authors provided revisions and contributed to the final manuscript.

    • Funding The IOC Olympian Health Cohort is funded with a research grant from the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

    • Competing interests TS works as scientific manager in the Medical and Scientific Department of the International Olympic Committee. LE is head of scientific activities in the Medical and Scientific Department of the International Olympic Committee, and editor of the British Journal of Sports Medicine and associate editor of the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.