Archive for Injuries
Snowboarder Torah Bright Out of X Games
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Australian Olympic snowboarder, Torah Bright, has withdrawn from the 2010 Winter X Games after hitting her head on the ice in training and suffering yet another concussion.
According to The Australian,
Bright was training in the half-pipe at Aspen, Colorado, yesterday to prepare for this weekend’s Winter X Games, when she missed the landing on one of her standard tricks, a switchback 720 (double spin), and struck the back of her head on the ice floor of the bowl.
She was taken to Aspen Valley Hospital for precautionary scans which cleared her of any serious injury, but she has withdrawn from the X Games, which was to have been her last competition before the Olympics.
Bright played down the mishap as “a bit of a fall” and said it would not affect her preparation for the Winter Olympics.
Let’s hope she has a speedy recovery with no long term effects from that fall and can show off her crazy new skill, the “double cork” in Vancouver later this month.
Here is a great documentary piece on Torah Bright for Roxy where she talks about riding the “White Wave”, her hopes, dreams and her worst snowboarding injury.
Is Cheerleading the Most Dangerous High School Sport?
Posted by: | CommentsDid you know that 65% of all the catastrophic injuries in girls high school sports in the past 25 years are Cheerleading injuries? Did you know that when it comes to high school sports as a whole that Cheerleading is 2nd only to football for the most number of injuries? According to the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research annual report it is.
Cheerleading used to be all about the cheers, the chants, the jumps and if you had a former gymnast on your team, the tricks. Now, there seems to be a greater emphasis put on the stunting, tumbling and more difficult tricks. Many of the high school cheerleaders are training on basketball courts, hallways and backyards as opposed to training facilities with appropriate matting, training aids (like trampolines and pits) or trained/certified coaches.
If cheerleading is going to continue to grow and become more of a “sport”, then it needs to have the same types of guidelines for training, coaching and safety in place like other scholastic sports. Every sport has its risks and kids can get hurt doing any sport, however, the numbers revealed in the report are definitely alarming and should send up flags that cheerleading as a high school and college sport needs to revamped. I’m not saying it needs to be eliminated – because at the high school and college level, I think it is pretty cool. They just need to re-evaluate the programs to try and reduce some of the risk factors.
What’s your take? Here are some additional articles on cheerleading injury statistics and safety:
- Sports Injury Research – Cheerleading Riskier than Football
- Cheerleading changed by injury
- Cheerleading Injury Statistics
- Cheerleading Safety
Summer Sports and Storms
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Summer swim season, baseball and softball leagues, golf and outdoor summer sports camps are in full swing around the country. But, so are summer storms.
We had a tragic event happen in our community this week. One boy was killed and another was gravely injured after being struck by lightning as they walked off the baseball diamond. The league had followed precautions and had put the game on a 30 minute delay – even though it wasn’t raining and only one smal bit of lightning had been seen in the area. This was definitely a freak accident, but one that reminds us of the dangers of outdoor sports and inclement weather.
Review the following safety tips from the NCAA’s Lightning Safety Guidelines:
- Designate a person to monitor threatening weather and make the decision to remove a team or individuals from an athletic event.
- Monitor local weather reports each day before any practice or event. Be aware of potential thunderstorms.
- Know where a close safe structure or location is to the field or playing area.
- Awareness should be heightened at the first flash of lightning, clap of thunder, or other signs such as increasing winds or darkening skies, no matter how far away.
- Avoid using land-line telephones, except in emergencies. People have been killed while using land-line telephones during thunderstorms.
- Cellular or cordless phones are safe alternatives to a land-line phone, particularly if the person and the antenna are within a safe structure and if other precautions are followed.
- Safety experts recommend waiting 30 minutes after both the last sound of thunder and last flash of lightning before resuming athletic activities.
Play hard, but play safe this summer!!
