Extreme sailing medicine: Injuries and illnesses

The origins of sailing dates back to antiquity, and despite the passage of millennia, the sport retains its strong and characteristic relationship with natural elements. Technical and tactical skills play a crucial role, often more-so than general physical fi tness. At the same time, sailing has greatly changed over time, especially over the last few decades, and it is still in tumultuous evolution. Technology plays an ever more important role (Fig. 22.1 ) while new equipment and race formats with an emphasis on speed and spectacular maneuvers continue to attract the attention of the media and general public. These features allow modern sailing to be counted among other extreme sports. In particular, offshore sailing competitions which are held in hostile and unpredictable environmental conditions maintain the spirit of ancient pioneering expeditions while fl eet regattas and match races are characterized by breathtaking and high-speed maneuvers. As sailboat performance advances, so does the demand for ever-greater physical and mental performance on the part of athletes. As a result, medical support such as advising on the choice of equipment and the most effi cient safety systems, optimizing the athletic preparation of crew members, and the prevention and rehabilitation of any injuries and illnesses sustained becomes ever-increasingly important.

Many features allow modern sailing to take place alongside other extreme sports, and these in particular mean challenging the laws of nature, pushing technology to the limit, spectacularity, and the need for its participants to possess technical skills and competencies in addition to physical fitness. The various sailing classes greatly vary in the demands they place on athletes, putting sailing crews at risk of different types of injuries and illnesses. Both recreational and novice dinghy sailors report mainly acute injuries: that are, in particular, head contusions from hitting the boom and spinnaker pole, cuts and lacerations to the hands and knee contusions due to falls and collisions with equipment. At the other extreme, prevailing injuries among Olympic-class athletes tend to overuse injuries, in particular, to the back and knees, due to specific activities such as hikingand also to a poor balance between work and recovery time. In America’s Cup crews, grinders, mastmen, and bowm...