Epidemiology Of Injury In Ireland’s Performance Level Swimmers; The Race To The Tokyo Games (Olympic/Paralympic)

PURPOSE: To examine the incidence of injury in Ireland's high-performance swimmers during the 2020-2021 season, in the build-up to the Tokyo Games. METHODS: Injury surveillance was carried out in two National Centres across one season (N = 14 swimmers,15-28 yrs) from September 2020 to September 2021. Competition and training injury data were recorded using an online system by trained injury recorders. Training load was also recorded using the session rate of perceived exertion (sRPE) method. RESULTS: Athlete seasons lasted an average of 314.9 ± 33 days (Max = 367, Min = 231). Season training load for all aspects of the programme averaged 17,1762.9 ± 34,007.5 AU, with 85% of that load coming from swimming A total of 29 injuries were logged with 28% of injuries being time loss, with a mean severity of 3.3 days lost. Time loss injuries lasted a duration of 14.8 ± 18.8 days, with non-time loss injuries lasting an average of 9 days longer at 23.7 ± 22.9 days. Three injuries were left unresolved at the end of the season, indicating an injury with intra-season management. Acute (sudden onset) injuries accounted for 45% of all incidence, with the remaining 55% being repetitive sudden or gradual onset. A high proportion of injuries were non-contact (83%) and occurred during swim training (48%), dryland training (28%), non-training related activities (21%) or training preparation (3%). An index injury occurred in 45% of the cases, with a recurrent injury (21%), subsequent new injury (10%) or local injury (7%) making up the remaining injury classifications. The most common injury was to the shoulder (21%), closely followed by the ankle (17%), lumbar spine (17%) and knee (14%). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings are consistent with previous literature showing that the shoulder is typically the most commonly injured body site, particularly during swim training. Overuse injuries are typically associated with swimming; however, our results show a more balanced incidence of acute and repetitive injuries. The smaller proportion of time-loss injuries showing a mild severity rating is also consistent with existing literature. The presence of three unresolved injuries highlights the need for multi-season injury surveillance otherwise the real impact of chronic injuries will be underestimated on a season by season basis.