Ice skating or Figure Skating is a sport that involves strength, flexibility and balance. The male in a skating duo may have to hold the female skater above his head which requires a great amount of strength. There is also involved an explosive power when launching into a jump as well as the jarring impact of landing.
All of these movements can stress the bones, muscles, joints and skin. They can cause acute/ traumatic injuries or chronic/overuse injuries. Recreational and elite skaters both suffer from these injuries. Falling injuries are common for the recreational skate and elite skater. While the impact with the hard ice can cause significant bruising it also runs the risk that a skater can tumble backwards and strike the head to the ice. This can produce a concussion. The impact with the hard ice surface can cause significant bruising as well as traumatic injuries.
Wrist injuries are quite common in fall injuries due to the skater instinctively putting out their hands to brace themselves for the impact. This can be a mild sprain or fracture. These types of fractures can occur in the radius and ulna bones of the forearm as well as the scaphoid which is a small bone located near the thumb bone.
Another body part prone to fall injuries is the knee. Typically the injury is minor leaving only a bruise and sore knee, but sometimes it can cause more serious damage to the kneecap, and even throwing the kneecap out of alignment. If not corrected misalignment can cause progressive damage to the knee and cartilage that keeps the knee stable. Knees can also be damaged by the twisting force during jumps or spins. Most commonly these occur to the ligaments that properly position the knee joint
Foot injuries are a common overuse injury. Since the skaters feet are tightly secured in the ice skate they bear the brunt of the forces generated during the various motions on the ice, feet can become deformed. Repetitive stretching of the Achilles tendon located at the heel of the foot and tendonitis at the bottom of the feet are common as well.
