EPIDEMIOLOGY PROFILE OF INJURIES OF ELITE AND SUB-ELITE MALE ARTISTIC GYMNASTS IN SOFIA, BULGARIA

ABSTRACT Introduction: Artistic gymnastics is an Olympic sport in which male artistic gymnasts perform on six apparatuses. The number of weekly training sessions can reach to 12, with 36 hours overall load. Methodology: The research was conducted among 15 elite and 16 sub-elite gymnasts on international and national level from Sofia, Bulgaria. The participants filled in a questionnaire about the type, severity, location, and reasons for the appearance of injuries. Results: We calculated injury incidence at 93.33% for elite and 87.50% for sub-elite male artistic gymnasts. The injury rate for elite gymnasts was 2.19/1000 gymnastic exposures and 2.87 injuries per gymnast for the year. The injury rate for sub-elite gymnasts was 3.78/1000 gymnastic exposures and 2.13 injuries per gymnast for the year. The acute injuries dominated in all participants. Shoulder is the most often injured anatomical location as a result of the exercises performed on rings and horizontal bar. Ankle is the next often traumatized location because of the exercises done on floor and vault (landing phase). Conclusions: Literature describing injuries in male artistic gymnasts is scarce, which makes it relatively difficult to compare gender data. Injury rates in the male artistic gymnasts we studied fall within the range described in the sports literature.