Andrew Raff - Skiing is safer

This week’s NY Times Magazine includes an interesting data table counting the number of injuries suffered by participants in various sporting activities. It is a companion to the article Pain Gains, but not available on the NYT web site.
I was surprised to see that alpine skiing has a lower injury rate than many other sports, including snowboarding, bicycling, running, soccer, baseball, hockey and cheerleading. However, the Times didn’t include the data about the severity of injury suffered. Skiing probably ranks higher when the severity of injuries are considered. American Sports Data, the company that did this research, did gather that information, which is available as part of A comprehensive study of sports injuries in the US.

<th>
  Participants<sup>1</sup>
</th>

<th>
  Injuries<sup>1</sup>
</th>

<th>
  Injuries per 100 participants
</th>

<td>
  5,783
</td>

<td>
  1,084
</td>

<td>
  18.8
</td>

<td>
  2,612
</td>

<td>
  415
</td>

<td>
  15.9
</td>

<td>
  908
</td>

<td>
  116
</td>

<td>
  12.7
</td>

<td>
  5,996
</td>

<td>
  610
</td>

<td>
  10.2
</td>

<td>
  17,641
</td>

<td>
  1,634
</td>

<td>
  9.3
</td>

<td>
  3,596
</td>

<td>
  323
</td>

<td>
  9.0
</td>

<td>
  36,584
</td>

<td>
  2,783
</td>

<td>
  7.6
</td>

<td>
  2,026
</td>

<td>
  133
</td>

<td>
  6.5
</td>

<td>
  16,587
</td>

<td>
  1,063
</td>

<td>
  6.4
</td>

<td>
  10,402
</td>

<td>
  602
</td>

<td>
  5.8
</td>

<td>
  35,866
</td>

<td>
  1,654
</td>

<td>
  4.6
</td>

<td>
  12,997
</td>

<td>
  399
</td>

<td>
  3.1
</td>

<td>
  6,719
</td>

<td>
  201
</td>

<td>
  3.0
</td>

<td>
  7,691
</td>

<td>
  218
</td>

<td>
  2.8
</td>

<td>
  14,249
</td>

<td>
  289
</td>

<td>
  2.0
</td>


Football (Tackle)
Ice Hockey
Boxing
Martial Arts
Soccer
Cheerleading
Basketball
Wrestling
Softball
Baseball
Running/Jogging
Skateboarding
Mountain Biking
Snowboarding
Skiing (Downhill)
Selected U.S. sports injuries in 2002, from American Sports Data, Inc.
¹thousands

Interestingly, the numbers in the Times article aren’t the same as those on American Sports Data’s web site. The website has higher injury rates (32.3 for football, 13.2 for basketball).
I guess this means would should expect to see more personal injury lawyers to start spending more time with cheerleading competitions than at ski areas.