Ski Injuries

On average, one in every 500 skiers will sustain an injury every day. (This doesn’t include snowboarding - skiing is a very dangerous sport, but snowboarding frequently has the same number of injuries and more every day.) Today, both Ted Ligety and Mikaela Shiffrin, World Cup champions, are injured and out for the rest of their season. Being a world cup skier, one season can make or break your career. Lindsey Vonn has had eight major, often season-ending injuries, resulting in a lot of physical therapy and hard work to get back to where she is now. From ACL, other knee injuries, a cut tendon, a bruised hip, forearm microfractures, a bruised shin, broken fingers, and concussions, she has had quite the road to recovery. There is even a documentary about her career, looking at how hard it’s been for her to get back to where she is. Lindsay currently holds the record for most World Cup wins, but at the rate she's been getting injured, she may not be able to ski for much longer. What can people do to prevent injuries and why are skiers so injury prone?

One factor that often results in injury is having the wrong equipment or having the wrong settings in equipment (for example, having the wrong din for one's ski bindings). The din is a number, usually around 4 to 13, that determines how tight the binding is; this depends on your weight. If the din is off, your ski may not pop off, causing a knee injury, or it may pop off when it doesn’t have to, causing other injury risks. If the equipment is not set for the type of skier they are, that may just as easily cause a season-ending injury. Skiers can be more prone to injury if they go on runs they are not capable of doing, skiing recklessly, or if they're just not physically fit enough. Last year, there were around 115,000 ski injuries total. As the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons said, “A majority of these injuries can easily be prevented if [skiers] prepare by keeping in good physical condition and stopping when [they] are tired or in pain.” A lot of injuries can be prevented by just something as simple as being fit - skiers should be careful to be fit, or they may have to quit!

Overall, you shouldn’t risk your ski season or career because of a little mistake. If more people understand what causes ski injuries and how to prevent them, maybe the total number of ski injuries per year can be reduced: if everyone has the proper equipment, skis on runs that they are capable of doing, and stays fit, this will not be such an issue. However, not all ski injuries are the person's own fault; skier Hailey Hunt was recently hit by a snowboarder and had a double break in her leg, which ended her season. A ten-year-old girl, too, was hit by a snowboarder and killed, because one person wasn’t paying attention. If everyone on the mountain stays in control and careful when they ski, that will also prevent some injuries. If skiers are properly educated about the dangers and risks, then even if injuries can't go away completely, at least, perhaps, the 115,000 injuries per year can be cut down to 75,000.