Increased injuries this year

[johndockley92]

Maybe it's just me, but it seems like more skaters are injured this year than ever. What do you think this can be attributed to? Perhaps everyone trying to up their technical ante the year before the olympic season? 3 of the top 5 US men have been dealing with injuries (Lysacek, Weir, Abbott) as well as big US names Alissa and Rachael among others.

Tons of people pulling out of the GPs from all nations in every discipline. The pairs field has run out of possible competitors for the GP series. Hopefully this all gets sorted, i prefer a competition where all are healthy and at the top of their game.

[Really]

Some of the people you specifically mention have been dealing with their injuries for more than just this season so I don't think you can say it's a seasonal thing. Sometimes these things happen in spurts, and yes, anytime the athletes are trying to ramp up the technical difficulty there's the possibility of injury, for whatever reason. Unfortunate, but I'm not sure there's anything that can be done about it...

[l'etoile]

I think the fact that the handsome number of injured skaters have been running the stage for more than their young years can be one of factors for that. S/S and P/T's injuries have been quite chronic in recent years and Alissa is already entering 8th season of her senior career, and Carolina in her tenth season. Not to mention Weir, Abbott, and Lysacek who are all preparing for competitions a bit past their prime. While unfortunately young skaters' injuries have happened as the course of their career, recent increased injuries might be largely attributed to that we have so many veteran skaters on the scene.

[euterpe]

There have been 37 withdrawals from the GP this season (so far). Ten of these vacancies have gone unfilled. Most of the withdrawals have been because of illness or injury. Exceptions: Kostner, Ando, Contesti, (personal); Marley/Brubaker, Zahorski / Miart (split) and Nazarova / Nikitin (JGP).

[love_skate2011]

someone needs to address this, so many withdrawals especially pairs
TEB alon has S/S , Lipnitskaia, Weir, maybe Joubert ? have withdrawn !

[hanca]

someone needs to address this, so many withdrawals especially pairs
TEB alon has S/S , Lipnitskaia, Weir, maybe Joubert ? have withdrawn !

Lipnitskaia????

[Jeschke]

I think the fact that the handsome number of injured skaters have been running the stage for more than their young years can be one of factors for that. S/S and P/T's injuries have been quite chronic in recent years .

do we speak of savchenko/szolkowy or who?

chronic injuries?
alionas got a really bad cold, that obviously can not be counted as injury.

and over the past 8 season they never struggeld with real bad injuries except for last season and their 'half-failed' 3axel-experiment.
and even that injury, was compared to others not that bad.

cannot understand they´re mentioned here

[peibeck]

Lipnitskaia????

She has not currently withdrawn, but there are reports she has twisted her ankle and may withdraw.

[kwanfan1818]

Savchenko and Joubert withdrew for illness, not injury.

Pairs:
This season:

Injuries (5): Dube/Wolfe, Kemp/King, Takahashi/Tran, Yankowskas/Reagan, Vartmann/van Cleave, two spots each.
Bone Condition (1): Sui/Han, two spots
Split (1): Marley/Brubaker, two spots
Illness (1): Savchenko/Szolkowy, one spot
Personal/Training Reasons: Hausch/Wende, one spot

Total WD's: 14 spots; Total Injury WD's: 10 spots

Last season

Skipped GP (1): Pang/Tong, two spots
Split (1): Canac/Bonheur, one spot
Don't know (1): Zhang/Wang, CoC host spot

Total WD's: four spots. Total Injury WD's: zero or one spots


Ladies:
This season:

Skipped GP (2): Kostner, Ando, two spots each.
Injuries (5): Silete and K. Zhang, two spots each; Shelepen and Czisny (last season's injury), one spot each, and Geng, WD at event

Total WD's: 11 spots; Total Injury (from this season) WD's: six spots, seven if Lipnitskaia can't skate at TEB.

Last season, also very stable:

Retired (1): Lepisto (retired from prior seasons' injuries)
Injuries (1): Hecken, one spot
Death in Family (1): Asada, WD at GPF

Total WD's: four spots; Total Injury (current season) WD's: one spot


Dance:
This season:

Splits (1): Zahorski/Miart, one spot
Remained Juniors (1): Nazarova/Nikitin, one spot
Injuries (1): Tobias/Stagniunas, one spot

Total WD's: three spots; Total Injury WD's: one spot

Last season:

Splits (1): Hoffmann/Zavozin, one spot
Injuries (3): Monko/Khaliavin, two spots; Zahorski/Miart and Paul/Islam (WD at event), one spot each:
Illness (1): Pechalat/Bourzat, one spot

Total WD's: six spots; Total Injury WD's: four spots


Men:
This season:

Retired: Contesti, two spots
Injuries (4): Weir, two spots (one WD at event); Lysacek, Ponsart, and Dmitriev, one spot each.
Freak warm-up Accident (1): Song, one sot
Illness (1): Joubert (WD at event)

Total WD's: nine spots; Total Non-Freak-Accident Injury WD's: five spots

Last season:

Retired (1): Alban Preaubert, one spot
Issues with Federation (1): Lysacek, two spots
Injuries (2): Liebers and Shultheiss, one spot each
?? (1): Reynolds (WD at TEB, and I don't remember why)

Total: six spots; Total Injury WD's: two or three spots

It's not surprising that two Men, Weir and Lysacek, trying to get back to top form relatively quickly and being older became injured. (With Plushenko, separating old and new injuries is a non-starter.)

[skatingguy]

Could all these withdrawls this season have something to do with skaters looking to try and rest or allow their injuries to heal this year than have anything carry over into the Olympic season next year.

[Twilight1]

Tessa Virtue was out for most of 2008-2009 due to her injury so she could heal enough for the Olympics. Makes sense that skaters would want to heal this season so they are in top form new year for Sochi

[MacMadame]

I think last year there were a surprisingly few number of issues so that makes this year seem worse than it might otherwise seem.

[gkelly]

It seems like most years people ask whether the injury rate is getting higher, but usually the question is just based on gut feeling.

Has anyone kept track over multiple seasons? Maybe start with the beginning of the Champions Series/Grand Prix ca. 1995?