Gymnastics practice and competition place considerable strain on knees, ankle joints and feet. High-impact landings in the vault and bars events create particular risk for ankle injuries. Increasingly, acrobatic floor exercises also put heavy loads on the ankle. Repetitive stress and chronic injuries are a problem in gymnastics, as are acute single-incident injuries.
Injury Risk and Gymnastics
The Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, noted that five of every 1,000 gymnasts active from 1990 to 2005 suffered injuries requiring acute care. Of those injuries, 33.8 percent were to the lower extremities. The American Academy of Pediatrics reports that ankle and foot injuries are common among gymnastics participants.
High-Impact Landings
The pressure to "stick" landings in competition creates ankle injury risk. Kerri Strug's performance at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta illustrated this. She suffered torn ankle ligaments during a failed vault landing, then completed her second vault on the injured ankle before crumpling over in pain. A study of NCAA women's gymnastics injuries published in 2007 showed that competitors are nearly three times more likely to suffer a sprained ankle in competition than in practice. Vault landings were the greatest cause of lower-body injuries.
Types of Ankle and Foot Injuries
The NCAA injury study found that sprained ligaments were by far the most common ankle injury in women's collegiate gymnastics. According to the study, more than 16 percent of all injuries examined from 1988 to 2004 were sprained ankles. Torn ligaments, ankle dislocation and fractures are extreme injury examples of gymnastics-related injury. Gymnasts may also suffer cartilage damage, growth plate injuries and Sever’s Disease -- calcaneal apophysitis.
Preventing Ankle Injuries
The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons offers several recommendations to reduce the risk of gymnastics injuries. Gymnasts should warm up and stretch thoroughly before training or competing. They should wear proper footwear for each event. For the more challenging skills, they should stress proper technique and only train under supervision. Training facilities should have appropriate floor padding to help reduce the force from a landing. Mats must be placed under the equipment and properly secured. Over-training and mental and physical fatigue can also put gymnasts at risk.
References
- American Academy of Pediatrics: Guideline for Pediatricians -- Gymnastics
- ESPN.com; Kerri Strug Fights Off Pain, Helps U.S. Win Gold; Rick Weinberg
- American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons: Gymnastics Injury Prevention
- U.S. News and World Report; Young Gymnasts Tumbling and Vaulting Their Way to the ER; Serena Gordon, April 2008
- Federation Internationale De Gymnastique; Ankle Injuries in Gymnastics; Dr. Lubos Hrazdira; March 2010
- "Journal of Athletic Training"; Descriptive Epidemiology of Collegiate Women's Gymnastics Injuries; Stephen W Marshall, et al.; April 2007
