A recent study found that cheerleading is by far the most dangerous school sport for girls (with gymnastics finishing a very distant 2nd). Cheerleading injuries account for over 65% of the catastrophic injuries in high school over the last 25 years.

So are the cheerleaders really #1?

As it turns out, the numbers reported in the study are misleading. The numbers don’t take into account the total number of participants and the number of exposures each athlete had to their sport. Cheerleaders and gymnasts compete and practice all year around, so their overall number of exposures are much higher.

So here are the real numbers:

Cheerleading injuries = 2 per 100,000 exposures
Gymnastics injuries= 5.4 per 100,000 exposures
Girls hockey injuries = 6.5 per 100,000 exposures

We are #1 - not exactly the trophy you want to take home at the end of the day.

So which injury is driving us into that #1 position?

Concussions.

In fact, the NCAA sport with the highest concussion rate (by far) is women’s hockey.

At the university level, female hockey players suffer 1 concussion for every 1000 exposures to the game.

On a team of 20 players, that means 1 concussion every 50 exposures.

Female hockey players are TWO TIMES more likely to suffer a concussion than male hockey players and almost THREE TIMES more likely than football players.

Pretty amazing for a sport that doesn’t allow full body-checking, isn’t it?

If the numbers for girls hockey injuries are correct, should we just stay off the ice?

I wouldn’t go that far - but have to find a way to
prevent these potentially devastating injuries from happening.

This is one instance when we definitely don’t want to be #1.

Until next time,

Kim