Sports « Weekly Gravy

U.S. gymnast Simone Biles vowed to continue her quest for Olympic gold after injuring her calf in a qualifying round at the Paris games. Meanwhile, a thigh injury forced French soccer captain Wendie Renardout of competition in a loss to Canada. And the L.A. Clippers’ Kawhi Leonard was forced to sit out the games entirely due to inflammation in his right knee, which was injured twice before. While Olympic athletes can make their sports look effortless, constant overuse of muscles and tendons can lead to big-time injuries that do more than cost them a medal, according to an orthopedic expert from Baylor College of Medicine. And the risks run through all sports — from gymnastics and distance running to swimming. Biles’ comeback after withdrawing from the 2020 Tokyo games has been a major focus of U.S. fans during the 2024 games. She’s competing in four events — vault, floor, beam and all-around. “Gymnasts are subjected to tremendous physical demands, and the repetitive nature of their trainings and performances increase the risk of injuries throughout the body,” said Dr. Jet Liu, an assistant professor of orthopedic surgery at Baylor in Houston, who detailed the most common injuries in popular Olympic sports. For gymnasts, knee sprains, strains and torn ACL ligaments can result from high-impact jumps, flips and dismounts, he said. Ankle injuries are a common… read on > read on >

Pickleball is the fastest-growing sport in the United States, particularly among older adults. It’s also a quick way for seniors to hurt themselves, unless they watch their form and warm up properly, experts say. “We are seeing an epidemic of pickleball Achilles tendon injuries,” said Dr. Timothy Charlton, an orthopedic surgeon at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. “Pickleball is really fun, and I encourage anyone to play it, but it’s important to do so in a healthy way,” Charlton added in a Cedars-Sinai news release. “We’re seeing many injuries because new athletes are returning to the court after a long time away or are starting to play competitively without proper training. This creates an environment where injuries are more likely to occur.” More than 13 million people have picked up pickleball, with a 200% increase in participation in the past three years, Cedars-Sinai experts said. Unfortunately, with that has come an increase in injuries. Pickleball injuries in the United States accounted for more than $350 million in medical costs in 2023, experts said. In particular, doctors are seeing a significant number of Achilles tendon ruptures among people ages 60 to 70, particularly among women, Charlton said. “This increase in injuries is largely due to the rapid rise in the number of people playing pickleball, often without adequate preparation or conditioning,” Charlton said. The Achilles… read on > read on >

Paris officials said Sunday they are confident the Seine will be clean enough for Olympic triathletes to swim in the storied river this week, despite the fact that officials had to cancel a practice run Sunday over worries about water quality. The men’s triathlon is scheduled for Tuesday, while the women are set to compete Wednesday. The triathletes were supposed to have a chance to familiarize themselves with the course on Sunday, but organizers said they nixed the swimming leg after officials met to discuss water quality tests, the Associated Press reported. Water quality in the Seine is closely linked to the weather. The decision to cancel the test swim was made after heavy rain fell during the Olympic opening ceremony on Friday and the stormy weather continued Saturday. Since no more rain is forecast, officials expect athletes will get the experience of racing in the Seine. “We’ve seen what were the dynamics of the Seine over the past few weeks, and that’s what makes us confident,” Paris Deputy Mayor Antoine Guillou said during a news conference on Sunday, the AP reported. After similar recent rains, the river’s water quality has returned to safe levels within 24 to 48 hours, he noted. Olympic organizers echoed that confidence. “We are still very confident with the weather forecast for the next 48 hours, the water quality will improve,” said Paris… read on > read on >

Bad news for Olympians headed to Paris — high levels of ozone pollution and grass pollen are likely during the upcoming games if hot, sunny weather prevails, researchers said. Ozone levels in Paris and its environs tend to exceed World Health Organization (WHO) recommended thresholds about 20 days per month between July and September, according to an analysis of air quality monitoring data from recent years. “Air quality in Paris during the summer can be characterized mainly by high ozone levels in the afternoon, especially on sunny and hot days,” concluded the research team led by Valerie Bougault, an associate professor with the University Cote d’Azur in Nice, France. Highly allergenic grass pollen will also be filling the air, although researchers noted those levels tend to fall between July and September. Researchers said they undertook the study to help Olympic athletes and spectators best prepare for the games. “By comparing these [air quality] levels with those in their area, athletes and spectators can see if they need to take steps to avoid or reduce their exposure,” the researchers wrote. “They can discuss this with their doctor and plan their activities to avoid the times and types of places where pollution is highest.” For the study, researchers analyzed air pollution readings from Paris and its suburbs taken between 2020 and 2023, as well as pollen counts… read on > read on >

People diagnosed with one of the most common inherited heart arrhythmias, called Long QT syndrome (LQTS), can safely engage in vigorous exercise without any added risk for sudden death or cardiac arrest, a new study finds. “Arrhythmic events were low in these appropriately treated individuals with LQTS in both those exercising vigorously and those exercising moderately or who were sedentary,” concluded a team led by Dr. Rachel Lampert, a professor of cardiology at Yale University School of Medicine. According to the Cleveland Clinic, LQTS involves delays in “recharging” the heart’s electrical system, which in turn can lead to a potentially dangerous irregular heartbeat. Medications, implanted devices and surgery are used to help control the condition, which is often inherited. According to one European study, LQTS occurs in about 1 in every 2,500 people, making it “the most commonly detected genetic electrical abnormality” of the heart, Lampert’s team said. Prior studies had suggested that vigorous exercise might help trigger cardiac arrest in people with LQTS, but as the researchers pointed out, those studies largely involved patients whose LQTS was only diagnosed after such a heart event. What about people who already know they have LQTS and are being appropriately treated? To find out, her team tracked outcomes over three years for 1,413 people diagnosed with LQTS at 37 medical sites in five countries. These people ranged… read on > read on >

The Olympics are often described as a rare, once-in-a-lifetime shot at international sports glory. That may be more true for Olympic track and field competitors than other athletes, a new study reports. There appears to be a peak performance age for track and field athletes, who specialize in running, jumping and throwing events, researchers report. It turns out that the peak age for these athletes is 27. After age 27, there’s only a 44% chance that an athlete’s peak is still ahead of them, results show. That number drops every subsequent year. What’s more, the average age of Olympic track and field athlete has remained remarkably consistent over the past three decades — just under 27. “Because the Olympics occur only once every four years, track and field athletes must carefully consider when and how they should train to maximize their probability of qualifying for the Olympics while at their personal peak,” said lead researcher David Awosoga, a master’s student in data science at the University of Waterloo in Canada. For the study, researchers analyzed year-by-year career performance data from every track and field athlete at the Olympics since the 1996 games in Atlanta. The team considered each athlete’s gender, nationality, event type and training level. Researchers focused on track and field because for many of these athletes, the Olympics offers the best chance to… read on > read on >

Alix Popham played in two rugby World Cups and won a Six Nations Grand Slam before retiring in 2011 as a professional in the rough-and-tumble game. By 2020, he had already been diagnosed with early onset dementia and probable chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a disabling brain disease long linked to repeated head trauma. Emboldened to activism by his experience, Popham helped found Head for Change, which advocates for better ways of preventing brain damage among rugby players. “This is more evidence that big changes need to happen to protect current rugby players. World Rugby need to get their heads out of the sand and in turn protect the game,” Popham said in a news release from Durham University. Similar to what’s been observed in other contact sports such as football and boxing, rugby can leave players with neurological damage long after they’ve retired. Now, a new study out of Durham suggests that certain blood biomarkers could predict those players at highest risk for CTE and other neurological issues. That might allow for earlier interventions that could minimize the damage, researchers said. Prior research has already demonstrated that retired professional rugby players have a much higher odds for depression, anxiety and irritability compared to amateur rugby players or athletes involved in non-contact sports. In the new study, Durham researchers add to what’s known about specific components… read on > read on >

Bicycling to work can vastly improve your health and reduce your risk of death, a new study shows. People who bike commute have a 47% lower overall risk of an early death, researchers found. They also are less likely to develop heart disease, cancer and mental health problems, results show. Walking to work also conferred some health benefits, but bicycle commuting provided the strongest boost to a person’s well-being, researchers reported July 16 in the journal BMJ Public Health. “This study provides timely evidence of the health benefits of active commuting for both local, national and international policymakers,” concluded the research team led by Catherine Friel, a doctoral researcher with the University of Glasgow in Scotland. For this report, researchers analyzed data from a national health study in Scotland involving 5% of the Scottish population. As part of the national study, participants were asked how they commuted to work. Their responses were linked to records of national hospital admissions, drug prescriptions and deaths between 2001 and 2018. Researchers found that commuting by bicycle was associated with: A 51% lower risk of dying from cancer A 24% lower risk of being hospitalized for cancer A 24% lower risk of hospital admission for heart disease A 30% lower risk of being prescribed a heart medication A 20% lower risk of receiving a prescription for mental health problems… read on > read on >

Exercise near bedtime won’t necessarily wreck a person’s sleep, a new study says. Intense exercise is typically discouraged as bedtime approaches, since such activity can disturb sleep by increasing body temperature and heart rate, researchers said. But short resistance exercise “activity breaks” at regular intervals can actually improve a person’s sleep, compared to winding down on a couch, researchers reported in the journal BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine. Simple, three-minute “activity breaks” involving chair squats, calf raises and standing knee raises with straight leg hip extensions added nearly an extra half-hour to a person’s sleep, when performed at 30-minute intervals in the four hours before sleep, results show. “These results add to a growing body of evidence that indicates evening exercise does not disrupt sleep quality, despite current sleep recommendations to the contrary,” concluded the research team led by Jennifer Gale, a doctoral candidate and sedentary behavior researcher with the University of Otago in New Zealand. For the study, researchers recruited 30 people ages 18 to 40. All participants said they typically have more than five hours of sedentary time at work and two more hours in the evening. Each of the participants completed two different sessions in a controlled laboratory experiment, separated by a minimum of six days. In one session, they remained seated in the four hours prior to sleep. In the… read on > read on >

Autopsies of deceased boxers and pro football players have long confirmed that repeat head injuries can lead to a devastating brain condition known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). Now, research supports the notion that contact sports can also raise the odds for a Parkinson’s-like disease, called parkinsonism, in athletes already affected by CTE. In the new study, “subjects with parkinsonism were more likely to have more severe CTE-related brain cell death in a region of the brainstem important for controlling movement,” noted study lead author Dr. Thor Stein. He’s an associate professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at Boston University. The study involved postmortem examination of the brains of 481 deceased athletes. It was published July 15 in the journal JAMA Neurology. As the researchers described it, parkinsonism carries some of the hallmarks of classic Parkinson’s disease — tremor, slowed movements, abnormal stiffness in the limbs. The two conditions differ, however, in how they manifest in brain tissue. People with Parkinson’s disease typically show a buildup of proteins called Lewy bodies in their brain cells, but the new research found no such buildup in the brains of about three-quarters of people with CTE and parkinsonism. “We were surprised to find that most individuals with CTE and parkinsonism did not have Lewy body pathology,” Stein noted in a university news release. So, what’s driving the parkinsonism? According… read on > read on >