EARLY SPORT SPECIALIZATION IN YOUNG FEMALE FIGURE SKATERS

BACKGROUND: Understanding the association between sport specialization in young athletes and injury continues to be an important goal of sports medicine specialists. However, studies focused on females were scarce. Additionally, studies dedicated to sport specialization in the performing artistic athletes, including figure skaters are deficient at this time. Purpose: 1) To investigate the prevalence of sport specialization in a cohort of female figure skaters, and 2) to determine if low back injury is more common in specialized female figure skaters compared to female figure skaters who are not classified as specialized. METHODS: Cross-sectional survey study design was used. Questionnaire data was collected from three major figure skating clubs in the Greater Boston area. Female figure skaters (age range: 5 to 22 years) were asked the following questions based on established sport specialization criteria: 1) Do you solely perform figure skating?, 2) Did you quit other sports to focus on figure skating?, and 3) Do you participate in figure skating more than 8 months/year? Status of specialization was defined as a “yes” answer to all 3 questions while “no” to any of the 3 questions was labeled as non-specialized. All participants were asked about a history of low back injuries, including muscular spine pain, stress fracture (spondylolysis/spondylolisthesis), disc protrusion/herniated disc, sciatica, and spinal cord injury. Descriptive statistics and chi-square analyses were performed, with p ≤ 0.05 as the critical statistical value. RESULTS: A total of 132 female figure skaters (mean age: 14.0±4.0 years) were analyzed. Approximately, 85% (112/132) of female figure skaters solely participated in figure skating and 54% (71/132) quit other sports to focus on figure skating. Almost all of the female figure skaters (99%) (131/132) engaged in figure skating lessons/practices > 8 months/year. About 62% (82/132) of figure skaters were classified as specialized, and 38% (50/132) were classified as non-specialized. There were no significant difference in low back injury history between the specialized female figure skaters (25.6%, 21/82) and non-specialized female figure skaters (24.0%, 12/52, p=0.836). CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE: The majority of female figure skaters in this cohort were classified specialized, and almost all female figure skaters participated in figure skating more than 8 months of the year. Although no association with low back injury was found based on status of specialization, more research is needed including effects of training volume on injury risk in female figure skaters.