Skiing Injuries

Skiing after an injury

Much has been written about skiing injuries and the potential hazards of this sport. Personally, I have added a fair share to the statistics. Through my sport, 15 years of moguls skiing most of the year, I guess I have been exposed more then the regular skier too: Two torn ACLs, two herniated discs, a whiplash and damage to the rotator-cuff. All of my ski injuries have been accidents, which happened under extreme impacts, which is an accepted part of the sport. All except one. 

I would argue that the herniated disc that I got while I was leading the world Cup in 1998 and that cost me the spot as favorite to take the gold medal at the Olympics in 1998, could have been avoided if I had known a little more about the body and biomechanics - and thus on specific physical preparation for skiing, especially moguls skiing. I trained a lot and very hard. Too much in fact, and far from optimally, and it cost me some expensive years of my career as a skier. 

Fortunately, something good came out of it, and I have learnt a great deal physical training since my first skiing injury. During the rehab and conditioning phases, I visited some of the world's best specialists rehabilitation and sports specific training, which brought me to Canada and the United States. This new targeted approach to training was, among other things, the reason that I could return to top 10 results in the world Cup in moguls skiing after two herniated dics, which most people had predicted impossible. 

I tell you this to illustrate that we can achieve a lot with the right training, and that we should not give up, because there is some adversity. If you would like to ski again after a skiing injury (or if it's something else you'd like to), just keep your spirit up and start training. But training the right way. Do not believe that a long run and fitness machines are magic solutions to everything. You need to work more specifically if you want to improve.  For more tips on ski specific fitness training here is an article on the when and where of ski fitness for you to start with.

The idea of Strong Skier is to help you with advice on the right kind of training for skiing, so that you

• Can make the most of you time skiing
• Become a better and stronger skier
• Reduce the risk of ski injuries

Hopefully this will help motivate you to give it a try to get back on the slopes if you had a skiing injury.