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Talent transfer (TT) program is an appropriate approach to address the talent gap evident in specific sports activities, while little is known about the injury characteristics of snowboarding athletes involved in the TT program. To determine the epidemiology of injuries among snowboarders involved in the TT program. A total of 244 athletes who were not previously engaged in winter sports were selected for training in snowboarding that lasted for 109 days. The injuries and at-risk exposures (A-Es) data were recorded by physicians. Injury rates (IRs), incidence rate ratios (IRRs), and injury proportion ratios (IPRs) were calculated and compared by sex and age groups. The overall and time loss (TL) IR were 32.4/1000 A-Es and 12.2/1000 A-Es respectively. The overall and non-time loss (NTL) IRR were higher for female athletes than for male athletes. Additionally, the overall IRR and TL-IRR for female athletes were higher in those athletes who aged ≤15 years old. Over 93% of TL injuries resulted in participation restriction time of ≤7 days (male athletes, 93.94%; female athletes, 94.10%). Trunk (28.43%), knee joints (21.33%), and hand/wrist (16.53%) were found as the common sites of injury in both female and male athletes. The most frequent type of injury was contusion (male athletes: 53.00%, female athletes: 59.10%) resulted from ground/apparatus contact (male athletes: 75.10%, female athletes: 75.20%). The risk injury among snowboarding athletes involved in the TT program during the first snow season training was found noticeable, especially for younger female athletes. The high incidence of ground/apparatus contact-related injuries suggested the necessity of specifically designed training programs and braces for snowboarding athletes involved in the TT program.

Problem Statement: The paper examines the current state of skiing and snowboarding in the USA against a model for developing high performance sport integrated with mass participation. The model stresses interconnections among the levels, such as macro-level policies used to impact healthy sport behaviors through regulations of advertising and marketing, school provisions, retail offerings, and taxes and levies, which directly and indirectly influence sport development at meso- and micro-levels. When the performance and health of athletes and masses of general population are advanced in integration, this ultimately helps reach goals of many supporting agencies and contribute to macro-level socio-economic success. Approach: We developed a questionnaire to examine the following elements of the model: talent development; advanced athlete support; training centers; competitions; intellectual services; partnerships with supporting agencies; balanced and integrated funding and structures of mass and elite sport. Survey questions were validated by 12 international experts including executives from sport governing bodies, coaches, academicians, and administrators. To determine the areas for improvement, 102 coaches completed the questionnaire. Possible advancements were further identified through semi-structured discussions with 10 skiing and snowboarding administrators. Purpose: This study investigated the integrated sport development from recreation to high performance at macro, meso, and micro levels of support and policy on the example of the United States Ski and Snowboard Association. Macro level elements refer in this study to socio-economic, cultural, legislative, and organizational support for a national sport system by the whole society. The meso level includes infrastructures, personnel, and services enabling delivery of sport policy. The micro level consists of operations, processes, and methodologies for development of individual athletes. Results and Conclusions: The sport system components overlap at different levels, therefore they create opportunities for a holistic system of sport development where high performance programs are integrated with mass participation provisions. Results suggest possible enhancements at macro level (e.g., new partnerships and incentives for greater support of mass participation), meso level (e.g., additional sources and models for better coach education and facilities), and micro level (e.g., advanced lifelong guidelines for excellence of everyone) on the example of USSA. It is important to use this holistic approach in further research on the integrated development of mass and high-performance sport.

Background/Objectives: High-altitude hypoxia may affect ECG readings, but it is unclear whether the “live-low–train-high” approach prevents these changes in winter sports athletes. Methods: This cross-sectional study assessed cardiovascular parameters in 102 winter-sport athletes (mean age 20 ± 4 y; 57% women), divided by training altitude into a high-altitude (HA) group (2500–3300 m, n = 70; skiers/snowboarders) and a low-altitude (LA) group (738 m, n = 32; ice hockey/figure skaters). Mid-season assessments included resting ECG, blood pressure, blood biochemistry, and three 24 h dietary recalls. Results: All ECG parameters were physiological, and no significant differences (p < 0.05) were observed in heart rate, PR interval, or QTc between groups. However, HA group exhibited higher systolic blood pressure and a short QT interval. Lactate was significantly higher in HA (p = 0.028). The HA diet contained more saturated fat (p < 0.001), cholesterol (p = 0.013), magnesium (p = 0.003) and potassium (p = 0.001), whereas LA athletes consumed more glucose (p = 0.024). In HA, total energy expenditure correlated positively (p ≥ 0.05) with QRS (ρ = 0.52) and QT (ρ = 0.56), while heart rate correlated inversely with vitamin D (ρ = −0.59). In LA, QTc showed strong inverse correlations with zinc (ρ = −0.62) and selenium (ρ = −0.85). Conclusions: This finding suggests that intermittent high-altitude training did not alter ECG patterns when nutrient intake was adequate. High lactate level and specific nutrient correlations point to a residual physiological load and a modulatory role of electrolytes, B-vitamins, and vitamin D on cardiac repolarisation.

Physical activity appears to be a strong determinant of the building of peak bone mass and the degree of bone mineralization in young adult males. This study aimed to describe the impact of volleyball (V), throwing athletes (TA), climbing (CL), snowboarding participation (SN), fracture history, hand grip strength (HGS), and body composition on forearm bone mineral density (BMD) in males. BMD, bone mass content (BMC), and T-score of the distal (dis) and proximal (prox) parts of the forearm were measured by the DXA technique. The CL and TA groups showed the highest BMD, BMC, and T-score dis and prox. In the TA group, a higher prevalence of normal BMD was found in the distal part of the forearm compared to V (by 6.7%), CL (by 15.4%), and SN (by 35.7%). In the CL group a higher prevalence of normal BMD was found in the proximal part of the forearm compared to V (by 12.4%), TA (by 6.8%), and SN (by 34.6%). The highest prevalence of low bone density was observed in the SN group. Covariance analysis revealed that body height and the type of sports competition significantly affected BMD in the distal region (adj. R 2  = 0.77). For BMD in the proximal region, the significant factor was sports competition (adj. R 2  = 0.73). In both the distal and proximal regions of the BMC, the significant factors were handgrip strength (HGS) in newtons (N) and the type of sports competition (distal adj. R 2  = 0.60; proximal adj. R 2  = 0.85). Similar results were obtained for the T-score dis. The T-score prox was significantly affected only by HGS (N) (adj. R 2  = 0.59). Training based on throwing and weight-bearing exercises influences higher forearm BMD. The results of the study also highlight the important role of information about past fractures, which may serve as an initial indicator of risk groups for low bone density.

The snowboarding project has the characteristics of high risk and high technical level. The current publicity level is not high, and the number of participants is also very limited. Another potential advantage medal breakthrough project that is expected to be achieved in the Winter Olympics has received a lot of attention, creating favorable opportunities for the promotion and development of this project in China. The event requires good special physical support, skeletal muscle contraction is the body to produce motor function, and special physical training and recovery are key factors for athletes to obtain excellent results in the competition. This article is aimed at performing ultrasonic quantitative analysis on the skeletal muscles of skiers after exercise based on artificial intelligence and complex networks and at studying the skeletal muscle conditions of snowboarders after exercise, so as to provide a certain theoretical basis for coaches in future scientific training. Based on a large amount of literature, this paper uses variational optical flow calculation and split Bregman method to solve the typical HS model, L1-L2 model, and L1-high-order model, respectively, and uses the motion estimation method to describe the movement of muscles. An experiment was designed to collect ultrasound images of the gastrocnemius and quadriceps muscles during contraction. In addition, a motion target positioning algorithm was used to obtain some motion parameters, which provided direct help for athletes in rationally arranging training load and scientific training. The experimental results in this paper show that the muscle motion features extracted from the ultrasound sequence images can quantitatively express a lot of important information about the skeletal muscle motion form and function and have potential practical application value. And the different invariants of each type of ski trajectory vary greatly, floating between 1.5429 and 7.6759.

Hypoxic and cold environments have been shown to improve the function and performance of athletes. However, it is unclear whether the combination of subalpine conditions and cold temperatures may have a greater effect. The present study aims to investigate the effects of 6 weeks of training in a sub-plateau cold environment on the physical function and athletic ability of elite parallel giant slalom snowboard athletes. Nine elite athletes (four males and five females) participated in the study. The athletes underwent 6 weeks of high intensity ski-specific technical training (150 min/session, six times/week) and medium-intensity physical training (120 min/session, six times/week) prior to the Beijing 2021 Winter Olympic Games test competition. The physiological and biochemical parameters were collected from elbow venous blood samples after each 2-week session to assess the athletes' physical functional status. The athletes' athletic ability was evaluated by measuring their maximal oxygen uptake, Wingate 30 s anaerobic capacity, 30 m sprint run, and race performance. Measurements were taken before and after participating in the training program for six weeks. The repeated measure ANOVA was used to test the overall differences of blood physiological and biochemical indicators. For indicators with significant time main effects, tests were conducted using the least significant difference (LSD) method. The paired-samples t-test was used to analyze changes in athletic ability indicators before and after training. (1) There was a significant overall time effect for red blood cells (RBC) and white blood cells (WBC) in males; there was also a significant effect on the percentage of lymphocytes (LY%), serum testosterone (T), and testosterone to cortisol ratio (T/C) in females (  < 0.001 - 0.015, ). In addition, a significant time effect was also found for blood urea(BU), serum creatine kinase (CK), and serum cortisol levels in both male and female athletes (  = 0.001 - 0.029, ). (2) BU and CK levels in males and LY% in females were all significantly higher at week 6 (  = 0.001 - 0.038), while WBC in males was significantly lower (  = 0.030). T and T/C were significantly lower in females at week 2 compared to pre-training (  = 0.007, 0.008, respectively), while cortisol (C) was significantly higher in males and females at weeks 2 and 4 (  = 0.015, 0.004, respectively;  = 0.024, 0.030, respectively). (3) There was a noticeable increase in relative maximal oxygen uptake, Wingate 30 s relative average anaerobic power, 30 m sprint run performance, and race performance in comparison to the pre-training measurements (  < 0.001 - 0.027). Six weeks of sub-plateau cold environment training may improve physical functioning and promote aerobic and anaerobic capacity for parallel giant slalom snowboard athletes. Furthermore, male athletes had a greater improvement of physical functioning and athletic ability when trained in sub-plateau cold environments.

Based on data from ski resort injury reports published annually by the Japan Association for Skiing Safety, six ski seasons, from 2012-2013 to 2017-2018, were surveyed. An analysis of skiing and snowboarding injuries at ski resorts in Japan was conducted using the injury rate per 1000 skier days as an international index. The skiing and snowboarding injury rates over the six seasons were 1.59 (95% Confidence Intervals:1.55-1.62) and 2.58 (95% Confidence Intervals:2.53-2.63) per 1000 skier days, respectively. The snowboarding injury rate was 1.62 times higher than the skiing injury rate (P < 0.05). Skiing was associated with the most lower limb injuries (53.2%, 0.91 per 1000 skier days, particularly knee injuries), and snowboarding with significantly more upper limb (49.5%, 1.40 per 1000 skier days, particularly shoulder and wrist injuries) and head and neck injuries (16.0%, 0.45 per 1000 skier days). Sprains (38.9%, 0.68 per 1000 skier days) were the most frequent in skiing, and fractures (29.5%, 0.84 per 1000 skier days) and contusions (27.9%, 0.79 per 1000 skier days) were the most frequent in snowboarding. Simple falls resulting from imbalance or falls from a jump or trick failure were significantly more common injury mechanism in snowboarding than in skiing, and most injuries occurred on groomed mild and moderate slopes. Snowboarding injuries were more common than skiing injuries regardless of the severity. A total of 68 fatal injuries (37 skiers, 31 snowboarders) occurred during the six seasons. Snowboarding resulted in most injuries among young people (especially aged 20-29 years), while skiing resulted in most injuries among middle-age people (40 years and older). Snowboarding often caused injuries to novices and beginners, while skiing often caused injuries to advanced skiers. Many injured skiers and snowboarders had not been wearing a helmet, especially non-helmet injuries were more common in snowboarding than in skiing. These findings suggest the importance of recognizing that skiing and snowboarding are high-risk sports that can lead to serious or fatal injuries. Therefore, it is essential for skiers and snowboarders to take appropriate safety measures at ski resorts. Especially, snowboarding should not be started before receiving adequate skill instruction and safety education.

Background Professional snowboarders are exposed to repetitive high-impact loading on a daily basis throughout their competitive and training careers. Objective The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of ankle derangements on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in asymptomatic professional snowboarding athletes. We hypothesized that elite snowboarders with asymptomatic ankles would exhibit osteochondral and soft-tissue changes on 3T MRI. Design Between February and March 2013, professional snowboarders specializing in various disciplines were recruited to participate in the study. 3T MRIs of each ankle were obtained prospectively. Setting World Cup snowboarding competition. Participants Each participant underwent a physical examination of each ankle and completed a short survey including demographic, pain, and functional questions prior to MRI evaluation to ensure that each of the included ankles were truly asymptomatic. Sixteen professional snowboarders (29 asymptomatic ankles) were included in the study. Risk factor assessment A 3T MRI scan of each asymptomatic ankle was performed. Main outcome measurements The MRI findings were recorded by an experienced musuloskeletal radiologist. Results There were 9 males (16 ankles) and 7 females (13 ankles) with a mean age of 23.4 years (range, 18–31 years) who had been professional snowboarders for a median of 6.5 years (range, 2–15 years). It was found that all 29 ankles (100%) had notable derangements on 3T MRI scans including various ligamentous pathologies, tendinous pathologies, syndesmosis injuries, effusions, osteochondral injuries and bony edema. Increasing age and years of competitive snowboarding were significantly associated with chondral damage of the ankle (P=.017 and P=.026, respectively). Conclusion All 29 asymptomatic ankles in this study had notable derangements on MRI scans, signifying a potentially high prevalence of asymptomatic ankle pathology in elite snowboarding athletes. Recognition of these injuries is important to create future strategies for the prevention of long-term sequelae in this high-risk group.

Background In addition to the beneficial health effects of being active, sports are also associated with a risk of sustaining injuries. To avoid the occurrence of sports injuries, preventive measures can be applied. The aim of the current article is to provide insight into the systematic developmental process of two evidence-based interventions designed to stimulate injury-preventive behaviour in runners and skiers, in which Intervention Mapping (IM) and Knowledge Transfer Scheme (KTS) are used as developmental protocols. However, the ultimate steps in the process are adjusted to meet requirements of the intervention and the target group. Methods Using a three-step process, we developed two interventions to stimulate injury-preventive behaviour in runners and skiers. Sports participants, sports experts and behaviour experts contributed throughout steps two and three of the developmental process. Results In step one we started with a problem statement in which we used information about the number and the burden of running-related and skiing-related injuries in the Netherlands. In step two, in-depth research was performed using four research strategies. During this step we tried to answer the following question: Which preventive measures or actions should be executed to prevent what injuries by whom, and how should we do that? A desk research/systematic review of the literature, expert meetings, target user surveys, and target user focus group meetings were conducted. In step three of product development, both interventions were developed. During the developmental process, co-creation sessions with target users were held. Before finalizing the interventions, pre-tests of the interventions were performed with target users. Conclusions Through a three-step approach, we developed two interventions to stimulate injury-preventive behaviour in runners and skiers. To develop an intervention that fits the needs of the target population, and will be used by them, it is necessary to involve this population as soon and as much as possible. Several steps in the IM and KTS protocols have thus been adjusted in order to establish an optimal fit between intervention and target group.