Look Out for These 7 Common Medical Problems Seen in the Olympics

Snowboarders and skiers are particularly prone to head and neck injuries. Weeks before the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, snowboarder Kevin Pearce suffered a traumatic brain injury. In 2021, skier Ryan Cochran-Siegle broke his neck during a race in Austria. Snowboarder Alex Deibold, a 2014 bronze medalist, couldn’t participate in this year’s Olympics due to a head injury.

Spine injuries are also common among snowboarders and skiers due to high-impact falls. In this year’s winter Olympics, Japanese snowboarder Rina Yoshika injured her spine after a crash in a training run. Fortunately, she was not paralyzed.

Compound fractures are some of the more gruesome injuries athletes encounter. Because of the intensity of Olympic sports, most athletes are at risk of broken bones. This year, alpine skier Nina O’Brien suffered a compound fracture of both her tibia and fibula after falling toward the end of her run.

Ice skaters, hockey players, and skiers frequently sustain soft tissue damage due to the torque that’s put on their joints. Knee injuries and torn ligaments are common. Figure skating, in particular, requires extreme flexibility, which can lead to hypermobility in the joints – skaters also often arch their backs while landing jumps and spins, which can strain the lower back.

According to John Dickinson, PhD, head of the Exercise Respiratory Clinic at the University of Kent in England, exercise-induced asthma is the most common medical condition seen in winter Olympic athletes. Nearly 50% of cross-country skiers suffer from it. The combination of sustained high breathing and cold dry air is the main culprit. (Source: Kent University).

This injury is most commonly seen in snowboarders due to blunt abdominal trauma from falls. According to a 2005 study by Canadian researchers, snowboarders are six times more likely to suffer splenic ruptures than skiers. It’s possible for this injury to go undetected, so athletes must be vigilant about abdominal pain.

It’s no secret that activities beyond sports happen in the Olympic village. For every Olympics, winter and summer, thousands of condoms are handed out in attempts to avoid outbreaks, like what happened in Sochi. Several athletes, such as Ryan Lochte and Hope Solo, have spoken out about the promiscuity that goes on behind the scenes at the Olympics.