ABSTRACT

Introduction: Synchronized skating is a very attractive, interesting, but also very dangerous sport due to introduction of more diffi cult and demanding elements imposed by the rules of the International Skating Federation.

Aim: To determine the frequency, time of occurrence and localization of injuries in Croatian senior team.

Materials and methods: An anonymous questionnaire was used that contained general data, a table in which it was necessary to mark the time, type and mechanism of injury. The research was conducted on a sample of 20 Croatian national team members in synchronized skating between the ages of 16 and 28. Data analysis used descriptive statistics in Microsoft Excel.

Results: The results showed that all of the examined skaters during their skating career were at least injured once, and several of them more than once. The greatest number of injuries were related to lower extremity injuries. 13 out of 20 skater (65%) had knee problems. 7 of them 20 (35%) had problems with the lumbar spine. Of the total of 45 injuries, 8 occurred during off ice training (17.77%) while 37 (82.22%) during on ice training. 4 injuries (8.88%) occurred during individual technique training on ice, 11 (24.44%) injuries were associated with falls, and 26 injuries (57.77%) occurred during group skating elements.

Conclusion: The number of injuries in synchronized skating is troublesome, mostly the number of injuries occurring during mutual contact of team mates on ice. Concerned are also results of frequent pain placed in lumbar spine associated with more diffi cult elements performed in programs. The reason for this maybe associated with raised quality and attractiveness of the sport which should attract the interest of experts from various fi elds of medical science.

Key words: synchronized skating, injuries, incidence