by stephen wade
on figure skaters winter Olympics Take it easy; Sheer beauty on hard snow.
But elite skaters also battle injuries, just like the rest of us who work out. go to the gym Or swim to stay fit.
“No athlete at this level is 100% completely healthy,” Gretchen Mohney, director of medical and performance services for U.S. Figure Skating, told The Associated Press from Milan. “It’s about managing whatever is breaking.”
The most important thing for Olympic skaters is to get prompt treatment. Olympic figure skaters have physicians, athletic trainers, and physical therapists to help them if they have a swollen knee, back pain, or a cut from a sharp blade.
Mohney, who has a doctorate in interdisciplinary health sciences, listed several red flags for skaters and staff to keep an eye out for, and wellness tips for weekend athletes.
some warning flags
- 1. Treat serious injuries immediately. “Recognizing and responding to an acute injury is a huge deal and what are we going to do about it versus ignoring it, because it usually gets worse,” Mohney said. “You have to get rid of the old school philosophy of just sucking it up and doing nothing about it.” 2. Treatment of old injuries. Elite figure skaters can’t take six weeks off, and at the Olympics, it’s now or never to perform. “We don’t say rest for two weeks, we say let’s let you perform as safely as possible … without any further injuries,” Mohney said. Some interventions are simple, such as adding padding to the feet to balance the small friction inside the skate. 3. Loss of mobility and compensation. Stretching and warming up are important. “When we lose mobility or flexibility our body starts to compensate and the stress shifts to another part,” Mohney explains. For figure skaters it can mean “the difference between a double jump and a quadruple jump.” 4. Deal with overuse. Mohini says the amount and intensity of training varies. Skaters compete year-round. He took the example of skaters repeatedly bending their backs to perform a layback spin. “No matter who you are, you’re going to have back pain,” he said. “All of our athletes have different training styles. You want to make sure you’re varying your loads so the body can recover.”
‘Hard ice always wins’
Dr. Fred Workman has been US Figure Skating’s team physician for 25 years, and more recently he has been treating more neurological injuries. It may surprise those who only see elegance, but figure skating is pushing the limits of performance, and so are the consequences.
Other frequent injuries include lacerations from knife-edged skates, or hip, knee, ankle and foot injuries – and shoulder injuries for men lifting partners in a pairs event.
“They’re doing overhead lifts, spinning on the ice — and smiling,” Workman said. “Skaters are doing a lot of demanding and aggressive – if you like, risky – maneuvers. Hard ice always wins. When you fall on the ice, something is going to give.”
Part of the practitioner’s job is diagnosis and treatment. The second is a holistic approach to guiding young athletes. This also includes managing stress mental health.
“Life doesn’t always go your way,” Workman said. “We are in a decisive game. You may not always get the points you think you deserve. But how do you handle that? You have to focus yourself mentally and be ready to perform.”
The two falls of Ilya Malinin It was reminiscent of the pressure elite skaters face in Milan last week. Malinin described feeling overwhelmed. “I felt like I had no control,” he said.
Away from competition, Workman tells skaters to add variety to their training and their lives.
“Not just cross-train your game, but cross-train as a human being,” he said. “Diversify your interests. A very common mistake is to spend all your time on the ice and less time training off the ice.”
Workman suggested a broader approach even for elite athletes at the Olympic level. He cited a television ad run by the NCAA several years ago that reminded college athletes that their life is a game now – but it won’t always be.
“At the end of the day, competitive careers end,” Workman said. “Why do we have sport? It’s to build resilience, to develop the life skills you need.”
shock, withdrawal
The American pair of Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea are aware of the injury. Last year, Kam was out for a month due to injury and O’Shea required foot surgery.
Unsurprisingly, he produced the best performance of his life to help the United States win its second consecutive Olympic gold medal in the team event.
Kam said, “We just wanted to give it our all, and I think that’s why Danny and I have been able to work through things that people see as obstacles.” “I think even amidst the obstacles, we found a way to connect better and become a stronger team.”
Diana Stellato-DudekAmerican-born Canadian pair skater at the Olympics, hits her head on the ice in a training session on January 30. Stellato-Dudek, 42, and her partner Maxime Deschamps had to withdraw from the team event during the first week of the Olympics.
“You have to take very special care of your body,” he told the AP. “I don’t smoke, I don’t drink, I’m extremely healthy. And I think treating my body that way for the last decade has helped me heal very quickly.”
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AP sports writer Dave Skretta contributed from Milan.
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