2024-07-30 07:58:47
– New research analyzes Olympic injury and concussion data since 2008 to determine which Olympic sports are the most dangerous for beginners.
– BMX (extreme cycling) emerged as the most dangerous Olympic sport with a 34.38% injury rate, while canoe slalom was the safest with a 1.2% rate.
– The 2012 London Olympics had the highest overall injury rate, with 12.8% of athletes reporting injuries.
Conducted by an online casino site, the study analyzed recorded sports injuries from the post-Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics by comparing the number of athletes in each sport to the number of reported injuries, the researchers identified the sports with the highest risk factors.
The Olympic sports most prone to injury are:
1. BMX racing proved to be the most dangerous Olympic sport with 34.38% of athletes sustaining injuries.
The risk was extremely high in 2016, with 37.5% of BMX riders injured compared to 31.3% in 2012.
While the 2020 Olympics (held in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic) saw a significant drop of up to 26% for BMX events.
2. Taekwondo follows BMX as the second most dangerous Olympic sport, with nearly 30% of athletes suffering injuries.
Although the risk was halved in Tokyo 2020, it peaked from an alarming 39% in 2012.
3. Football also carries a high risk, with over 27% of 1,508 players between 2008 and 2016 sustaining injuries.
4. Mountain biking (mountain biking or MTB), despite having an average risk of 22.44%, saw a huge drop in injuries in 2020 to just 7%.
Most injuries were mild, with about 1% lasting more than a week.
5. Despite a low average injury rate of 18.12%, boxing had the second highest number of injured athletes in recent Olympics, indicating an increasing risk.
Despite a lower overall injury rate of 18.12%, 5% of boxing injuries in 2020 lasted more than a week.
So at these Olympics, we can expect boxing to move up in that ranking.
Least Injury-Prone Olympic Sports:
1. Canoe slalom boasts the safest record of any Olympic sport, with an average injury rate of just 1.2% over the past four games. Recent Olympic Games have seen an impressively low injury rate of under 5%, with only two reported injuries between 2012 and 2016.
2. Kayaking and canoeing are considered safe Olympic sports with an average injury rate of 2.23%.
3. Shooting is also relatively safe, with a similar injury rate of 2.24% and only 26 official injuries over the past three Olympics.
4. Rowing follows closely behind shooting with an average injury rate of 2.25% of 1,640 Olympians, with only 3% of athletes injured in 2020.
5. Canoe sprinting, although relatively safe, has a slightly higher injury rate of 3.22%, with 3% of athletes injured in 2020 and 1% with injuries lasting more than a week.