A profile of musculoskeletal injuries in competitive swimmers in the greater Durban area

Abstract

lntroduction: Swimming is one of the most popular participation sports 1 as people are drawn to swimming for leisure, cardiovascular workouts, or competition 2 . As a result, the sport of swirnrninq has improved 9reatly over the past 20 years 3 . Olbjectoves: The aim of this study was to determine a profile of musculoskeletal injuries in competitive swimmers in the greater Durban area of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa; as well as to determine whether any relationships exist between swimming injuries sustained in this study and the risk factors identified in other studies, and to compare the results with international data. Therefore; for the purpose of this study, the following information was gathered in order to build up an injury profile: o Demographics of competitive swimmers in South Africa, o The participants swimming history, o The presence of any past or current injuries and o Factors associated with current and previous injuries were also investigated. This study was a prospective, cross-sectional, questionnaire based study, investigating the profile of musculoskeletal injuries in 101 competitive swimmers in the greater Durban area. The data was collected by means of a self-administrated questionnaire, which was completed by the participants, under the supervision of the researcher, parents or coach.