Winter Olympic injuries

As the world collectively watches the 2026 Winter Olympics, we are in awe of athletes making their intense sports look graceful and natural. What we do not see behind the scenes are the countless hours of training to compete at the highest level. You might watch an event and think, “I can probably do that,” but it takes years of preparation to not only perfect the sport, but to prevent injuries to excel. A Baylor College of Medicine orthopedic surgeon details common sports-related injuries across chilling Olympic events.  

Figure skating

“When you think of skating, you think of falls. Falling on an outstretched hand can lead to wrist fractures, such as fractures of the distal radius and the scaphoid, as well as elbow injuries like radial head fractures,” said Dr. Michael Maier, assistant professor in the Joseph Barnhart Department of Orthopedic Surgery at Baylor. 

Knee injuries are another concern when skaters fall on their knees, which can result in patella fractures. Ligament injuries can occur when they come down on the landing, leading to ACL tears or sprains. 

If a skater is catching their partner, it can lead to an abduction-type external rotation injury or shoulder injury, which occurs when the arm is in an award position when trying to catch their partner from a fall. 

Hockey

Hockey players can experience a wide range of injuries. They can easily fall or be crushed into the boards, which can result in an acromioclavicular joint separation (the acromioclavicular joint where the clavicle meets the scapula). This can result in ligament injury where the distal clavicle (outer part of the collar bone) can become separated from the acromion (joint at the top of the shoulder). These cases can be treated with or without surgery depending on the level of injury. Hockey players who fall on their shoulder might also experience clavicle fractures.  

“Hockey players incur more ligament injuries because someone might be skating and get hit like a football player would and twist their knee, which can lead to an ACL or meniscus injury,” Maier said. 

Skiing

Skiers face ligament injuries and knee injuries, with ACL tears being one of the most common cases. 

“The knee doesn’t do well without ligaments, so if you try to ski through an ACL tear, you can sustain injury,” Maier said. 

If the arm gets caught on the ski pole, it can create a force on the upper extremity as well, resulting in shoulder dislocation or a labral tear because the arm is forced out to the side. Skiers thumb occurs when you put the ski poles in the ground and they get caught. When the hand gets caught, it bends the thumb back, injuring a ligament on the thumb called the ulnar collateral ligament of the thumb. 

Like in any other sport, falling while skiing can lead to concussions and brain injuries.

Snowboarding

While snowboarding injuries include similar falls, concussions and fractures as skiing, the difference between the two is that in snowboarding, both feet are fixed in a boot with abnormal forces on the foot. The intense force on the foot can cause snowboarder’s fracture. Snowboarder’s fracture is a fracture of the lateral process of the talus, which is right underneath the ankle. 

“Since you don’t have poles like you do in skiing, you might land on your outstretched hand,” Maier said. “Like a figure skater who lands this way, you might have wrist and elbow injuries because the force gets transmitted from the wrist up to the elbow and you can have wrist and elbow fractures.”

Injury prevention

Aside from training, injury prevention is crucial and takes a multi-step approach. Elite athletes prepare their bodies to be as strong as possible. Muscles are protective against ligament injuries, so focusing on having strong muscles in the off-season (like hamstrings) protects the knee from getting an ACL injury. Athletes also focus on balance work for the body to be more able to catch a fall and have the ligament balance to not sustain the injury. 

“Whether it’s skiing or soccer or basketball, in sports where ACL injuries are very common, athletes are going to be focused at the highest level on prevention,” Maier said. “Once you have an injury, like a ligament injury, the knee isn’t stable enough to compete.”

Athletes typically can work through overuse injuries, but with unstable joints, surgery or rehabilitation is necessary to restabilize.

“You don’t want to compete with instability in a sport like skiing or figure skating because you’re at a much higher risk to have an injury,” Maier said. 

In addition to proper training, sleep, nutrition, hydration, stretching and core strengthening are essential for overall injury prevention.

“If you seem like you’re mainly using your lower body to maneuver down a ski slope, having really good core strength will lead to better balance and fall retention,” Maier said. “The body is all connected. Whether you’re training for a Winter Olympic sport or golf, don’t just focus on one part of the body for your sport.”