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UCT RESEARCH REPORT 2012
Sporting Performance, Medicine and Sports Injuries
The Paralympic Games of London in 2012 were the biggest, most successful and, by virtue of a comprehensive series of
research studies conducted by ESSM in partnership with the International Paralympic Committee, the most researched
Paralympics in history.
Research Project
The 2012 London Paralympics showcased the
performances of over 4,000 athletes from 164 nations.
It was also the opportunity for a comprehensive
evaluation of injury and illness from a team of
ESSM researchers, led by Professors Wayne Derman
and Martin Schwellnus, in collaboration with the
International Paralympic Committee.
The research, published in a series of papers in the
British Journal of Sports Medicine
, described a web-
based surveillance system that captured statistics
of 3,565 athletes, from 160 nations, to provide a
goldmine of data involving 49,910 athlete days.
Among the intriguing findings was that the patterns
of injury and illness are different from those of able-
bodied athletes – more upper-limb injuries (shoulder,
hand, wrist and elbow) occur in Paralympic athletes
than in able-bodied athletes. “Interestingly,” explains
Professor Derman, “this is true even in lower-limb
amputees, and is likely because normal daily activities
like getting in and out of cars places a greater load
on the upper limbs, making them more susceptible to
injury as a result of sports participation.”
The research also found that one in nine athletes
developed an illness during the Paralympic Games, and
that non-respiratory tract illnesses, including urinary
tract and skin conditions, are more common than
respiratory tract infections in Paralympic athletes. “The
implication is that medical care for Paralympic athletes
is very different from that of able-bodied athletes, and
team physicians must be mindful of these differences
when planning their intervention strategies for both
prevention and treatment of illness and injury,” explains
Professor Derman.
Sporting performance and injury research also has a
genetic slant through the work of Professor Malcolm
Collins and Drs Alison September and Mike Posthumus.
Having previously identified various DNA sequence
variants associated with tendon and ligament injuries,
the group has continued this but with the ambition
of expanding into a more mechanistic understanding
of genes and injury. “It is important for us to move
beyond simply associating gene variants with injury.
We want to determine how these variants are involved
in altering risk,” explains Professor Collins. This means
borrowing from other techniques, including cell and
molecular biology, to add to world-leading genetic
research already conducted by ESSM.
ESSM have also, over the last year, developed a research-
consultant relationship with SA Rugby’s safety programme,
BokSmart, directed by Dr Wayne Viljoen, an ESSM
graduate. “SA Rugby has set up an excellent infrastructure
to log and monitor cases, and we are helping analyse the
data to identify how to improve implementation and direct
future policy,” explains Professor Mike Lambert, who has
overseen the project from ESSM’s side, along with PhD
student James Brown.