Injuries in Sports

I agree that it is surprising that riding a bike is the third highest sport that causes injuries, but if you think about it I wonder if the data includes kids getting hit by cars. If it does, then it makes sense because when you are 10-14 years old and cannot drive yet, you want to bike anywhere and everywhere you can and that causes higher risk of potentially getting injured.

Part of the data that needs to be analyzed is what is defined as sport. Most kids riding a bicycle are not necessarily participating in an organized form of bicycling, such as that found in the Tour de France. The study could include bloated numbers because playing on a jungle gym could be considered a "sport." Further analysis of the study would clear up my concern. Knowing the full truth behind statstics is very important when digesting information.

I agree with Devin that they should tell what really defines a sport, also what defines injury even. Also who collected the information and how many different people collected the information? Interesting article though.

I think it'd be interesting to analyze the proportion of injured athletes that are female. The trainers I've worked with have harped that girls especially need to work on preventing injuries - specifically ACL tears.
The physical intensity of sports has definitely picked up over the years. One doesn't need to look much further than the helmet-to-helmet contact rules of the NFL to see that games have been changing to become more physical and potentially dangerous.

Interesting blog...the first time I saw the statistic about bicycling accidents being among the top of the list in injuries I was shocked, but when you think about it there are a ton of crashes and a ton of people who do bicycle races of all ages. It is pretty easy to fall off your bike at a high pace and get a concussion or something. I grew up playing hockey and over 15 years of playing I broke my hand once and had a concussion once...so I guess 2 injuries in 15 years is pretty good. Hockey doesn't get physical until around age 14 (bantams) and then most people only play for another 5 years, if that. So that is probably why hockey doesn't have a ton of injuries. But I liked this blog and always enjoy reading about sports.

I think all of the injuries can partly be attributed to the fact that more and more people are becoming involved in sports and there are more games being played now days than there have ever been. I do agree that something should be done to fix this problem but not if it interferes with the integrity of the particular sport. When it comes down to it if you are participating in sports, you are assuming the possible risk of an injury.

Although I think it is a very interesting argument you are making here, I would like to point out that there other types of injuries that occur to kids. Injuries in sports are prominent, sure, but compared to the types of injuries that happen at the hands of others like abuse from family members, car crashes due to drunk drivers, animal attacks, etc., these are minor wounds.

I would like to see them specify what injuries have occurred and their severity. To me it isn't surprising that basketball has many injuries, as rolled ankles, sprained wrists, blows to the face/head occur quite frequently, but aren't that severe. There are probably more serious injuries in football, such as broken bones and concussions and they are more likely to occur in football than basketball. So I wonder how basketball would stack up to football in the more traumatic injury list. Interesting blog though.