Epidemiology of Injury Complaints in Elite Sprinting Athletes in Athletics (Track and Field)

Objective: To describe the epidemiology of injury complaints related to the athletics activity in elite athletics (track and field) athletes practicing disciplines with sprints (i.e., sprints, hurdles, combined events, long jump, and triple jump). Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study on elite sprinting athletes licensed with the French Federation of Athletics with retrospective data collection of injury complaints related to the athletics activity that occurred during their lifetime athletics activity, allowing the reporting of the injury complaints during the one-year period before the survey and at the time of the survey, using a self-reported online survey system. We calculated the (i) lifetime, (ii) 1 year, and (iii) point (at the time of the survey) prevalence proportion, and we descriptively analyzed the injury complaint characteristics. Results: A total of 302 injury complaints related to the athletics activity were reported by 64 athletes of the 68 included athletes. The lifetime prevalence proportion was 95.6% (95% CI: 90.7 to 100.5%). The 1-year prevalence proportion was 61.8% (95% CI: 50.2 to 73.3%). The point prevalence proportion (at the time of the survey) was 16.2% (95% CI: 7.4 to 24.9%). Almost all injury complaints were located in the lower limb (92.7%) and especially involved the hamstrings (33.4%); the main type involved was the muscle (49.0%), and injury complaints mainly occurred during training and with a sudden mode of onset. The most frequent diagnosis was hamstring muscle injury (31.1%). Conclusions: This study provides new insights specifically in elite sprinting athletes, confirming the injury risk in this population and that the main injury diagnosis was the hamstring muscle injury. Efforts should thus continue to monitor injuries in this population and to develop athletics- and sprinting-specific injury risk reduction strategies.