Interesting (if lengthy) story over at NYTimes.com (set to run in Sunday's Times Magazine) about the rise in injuries to female athletes, which coincides with the rise in sports participation among women.
So why is it significant here? Go no farther than the first sentence -- which features St. Thomas Aquinas soccer player Janelle Pierson, a former first-team All-Broward selection, who sustained torn anterior cruciate ligaments in both knees during her career.
Pierson is a window into a greater issue, one for which writer Michael Sokolove appears to reach a bit early on, seeming to state the obvious (more participation = more injuries), and "expose" a subject that has plagued sports for years (will today's games affect the athletes' futures?):
Janelle’s mother broached the subject with her of whether she should continue playing at all. “I’m afraid for her, and for all these girls,” Maria Pierson told me recently. “What’s it going to be like for them at 40 years old? They’re in so much pain now. Knees and backs and hips, and they just keep going. They’ve been going at this so hard for 10, 11, 12 years, and it’s taking a toll. Are they going to look back and regret it?”
But, after a while, a reason comes into focus -- the different makeups of boys vs. girls:
Girls and boys diverge in their physical abilities as they enter puberty and move through adolescence. Higher levels of testosterone allow boys to add muscle and, even without much effort on their part, get stronger. In turn, they become less flexible. Girls, as their estrogen levels increase, tend to add fat rather than muscle. They must train rigorously to get significantly stronger. The influence of estrogen makes girls’ ligaments lax, and they outperform boys in tests of overall body flexibility — a performance advantage in many sports, but also an injury risk when not accompanied by sufficient muscle to keep joints in stable, safe positions. Girls tend to run differently than boys — in a less-flexed, more-upright posture — which may put them at greater risk when changing directions and landing from jumps. Because of their wider hips, they are more likely to be knock-kneed — yet another suspected risk factor.
This divergence between the sexes occurs just at the moment when we increasingly ask more of young athletes, especially if they show talent: play longer, play harder, play faster, play for higher stakes. And we ask this of boys and girls equally — unmindful of physical differences. The pressure to concentrate on a “best” sport before even entering middle school — and to play it year-round — is bad for all kids. They wear down the same muscle groups day after day. They have no time to rejuvenate, let alone get stronger. By playing constantly, they multiply their risks and simply give themselves too many opportunities to get hurt.
And:
Studies of U.S. high-school athletics indicate that, when it comes to raw numbers, boys suffer more sports injuries. But the picture is complicated by football and the fact that boys still represent a greater percentage of high-school athletes.
Girls are more likely to suffer chronic knee pain as well as shinsplints and stress fractures. Some research indicates that they are more prone to ankle sprains, as well as hip and back pain. And for all the justifiable attention paid to concussions among football players, females appear to be more prone to them in sports that the sexes play in common. A study last year by researchers at Ohio State University and Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, reported that high-school girls who play basketball suffer concussions at three times the rate of boys, and that the rate for high-school girls who play soccer is about 1.5 percent greater than boys. According to the N.C.A.A. statistics, women who play soccer suffer concussions at nearly identical rates as male football players. (The research indicates that it takes less force to cause a concussion in girls and young women, perhaps because they have smaller heads and weaker necks.)
The story continues -- in massive detail -- about ACLs, young girls' athleticism and bodily makeup, and Pierson herself. It is adapted from a book, "Warrior Girls: Protecting Our Daughters Against the Injury Epidemic in Women’s Sports," due out in June. Worth reading, if you have the time.
--Patrick Dorsey (e-mail)
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