Favourable Changes of the Risk-Benefit Ratio in Alpine Skiing

Martin Burtscher and Gerhard Ruedl
Additional contact information
Martin Burtscher: Department of Sport Science, Medical Section, University of Innsbruck, Fürstenweg 185, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria
Gerhard Ruedl: Department of Sport Science, Medical Section, University of Innsbruck, Fürstenweg 185, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria

IJERPH, 2015, vol. 12, issue 6, 1-6

Abstract: During the past five decades recreational alpine skiing has become increasingly safer. The numerous annual media reports on ski injuries have to be interpreted on the basis of the tremendous numbers of skiers. These favourable changes seem primarily be due to the introduction of short carving skis, more rigid and comfortable ski boots, the use of protective gear like helmets, and the optimized preparation of ski slopes. The associated health benefits from skiing, especially arising from its association with a healthier life style, and possibly also from effects related to hypoxia preconditioning and increasing subjective vitality by natural elements clearly outweigh the health hazards. Technical improvements will likely help further reducing the injury risk. At least hypothetically, each individual skier could help to prevent injuries by the development of an appropriate physical fitness and responsible behaviour on ski slopes thereby optimizing the risk-benefit ratio of alpine skiing.

Keywords: alpine skiing; injury risk; health benefits (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/12/6/6092/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/12/6/6092/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:12:y:2015:i:6:p:6092-6097:d:50360

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().