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

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.