Which Summer Olympic Sports Had the Highest Injury Rates?
The Tokyo 2020 injury and illness surveillance study followed 11,315 athletes from 206 national Olympic committees. Overall, about 9% of athletes sustained at least one injury during the study period.
The sports with the highest reported injury incidence were:
Boxing
27% of athletes sustained an injury.
BMX racing
27% of athletes sustained an injury.
BMX freestyle
22% of athletes sustained an injury.
Skateboarding
21% of athletes sustained an injury.
Karate
19% of athletes sustained an injury.
Handball
18% of athletes sustained an injury.
These figures represent injuries recorded during the Olympic surveillance period. They should not be interpreted as a permanent ranking of how dangerous each sport is.
Which Winter Olympic Sports Had the Highest Injury Rates?
The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic surveillance study reported that about 10% of athletes sustained an injury. The highest injury incidence occurred in freestyle skiing and snowboarding events involving substantial speed, aerial manoeuvres and landing demands.
Ski halfpipe
30% injury incidence.
Ski big air
28% injury incidence.
Snowboard slopestyle
23% injury incidence.
Ski slopestyle
22% injury incidence.
Beijing 2022 therefore supports ski halfpipe as the Winter Olympic event with the highest injury incidence in that Games. It is better to report the four leading events identified by the study than invent a fifth-ranked category.
What Does the Latest Paris 2024 Research Show?
Research from Paris 2024 is now being published and gives us newer information about Olympic injuries. However, the currently available studies do not provide the same whole-Games sport-by-sport comparison as the Tokyo surveillance study.
Team Korea
A 2025 study examined injuries and illnesses among Team Korea athletes during their pre-Olympic training camp and the Paris Olympic Village period. It provides useful contemporary injury-surveillance information, but it represents one national delegation rather than every athlete competing in Paris.
Team USA
Published Team USA surveillance has also added important information from Paris 2024. One study included 635 US Olympic athletes and recorded 174 injuries and 99 illnesses across the surveillance period. Most health problems did not result in time loss from competition.
A separate analysis found that injury or illness was associated with a poorer finishing percentile after accounting for expected performance, although it did not show a statistically significant reduction in the probability of winning a medal.
Until a comparable whole-Games sport-by-sport analysis is available, Tokyo 2020 remains the most appropriate recent dataset for directly comparing Summer Olympic sports.
What Do We Know About Milano Cortina 2026?
The Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games have now taken place. As expected in elite winter sport, injuries occurred during training and competition, and athlete health remained an important part of Games medical services.
However, reports of individual injuries cannot determine which sport had the highest overall injury rate. As of August 2026, we have not identified a published whole-Games sport-by-sport injury-surveillance analysis for Milano Cortina 2026 equivalent to the Beijing 2022 study.
For that reason, Beijing 2022 remains the most recent suitable published dataset for directly ranking Winter Olympic sports by injury incidence. This page should be updated when the full Milano Cortina surveillance data are published.
Which Olympic Sports Had Lower Injury Rates?
Lower injury incidence during one Games does not mean a sport is inherently safe. However, several sports recorded relatively few injuries in the Tokyo and Beijing surveillance studies.
Tokyo 2020
The lowest reported injury incidence, at about 1–2%, occurred in:
- Diving
- Road cycling
- Rowing
- Marathon swimming
- Shooting
Beijing 2022
The lowest reported injury incidence, also around 1–2%, occurred in:
- Curling
- Alpine mixed team parallel slalom
- Nordic combined
- Alpine super-G
These figures describe what happened during those particular Olympic Games. Training exposure, weather, course design, athlete numbers, competition format and injury definitions can all affect reported rates.
Why Do Olympic Injury Rates Differ Between Sports?
Olympic sports expose athletes to very different physical demands. Injury risk can rise when several high-load factors occur together.
Speed and falls
High-speed cycling, skiing and snowboarding can produce substantial forces when an athlete falls or crashes.
Contact and collision
Combat and team sports expose athletes to direct contact, tackles, impacts and unpredictable forces.
Jumping and landing
Aerial and slopestyle events place high demands on landing control, balance and the lower limbs.
Rapid changes of direction
Cutting, braking and accelerating repeatedly can place high loads through the knees, ankles and muscles.
Training and competition load
Elite athletes often combine substantial training exposure with tightly scheduled competition and limited recovery time.
Event-specific demands
Equipment, playing surfaces, weather, course design and competition rules can change injury exposure between events and Games.
Do Olympic Injury Rates Apply to Recreational Athletes?
Not directly. Olympic athletes train and compete at an exceptional level, often at greater speed, intensity and technical difficulty than recreational athletes.
Olympic surveillance is useful because it highlights injury patterns and sporting demands. However, your own injury risk depends on factors such as your sport, previous injuries, training load, strength, technique, age, recovery and level of competition.
If pain or an injury is affecting your sport, an individual assessment is more useful than relying on an elite-sport injury statistic.
What Should You Do if a Sports Injury Is Limiting You?
Seek assessment if pain persists, repeatedly returns or changes how you train or compete. A physiotherapist can assess your symptoms, movement and sporting demands, then help you work towards an appropriate rehabilitation and return-to-sport plan.
For acute injuries, concussion symptoms, suspected fractures or severe pain, seek appropriate medical assessment rather than trying to continue through symptoms.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which Olympic sport has the highest injury rate?
There is no permanent single highest-risk Olympic sport. At Tokyo 2020, boxing and BMX racing had the highest reported injury incidence at 27% each. At Beijing 2022, ski halfpipe ranked highest at 30%.
Which Summer Olympic sports had the highest injury rates?
Tokyo 2020 reported the highest injury incidence in boxing and BMX racing at 27%, followed by BMX freestyle at 22%, skateboarding at 21%, karate at 19% and handball at 18%.
Which Winter Olympic sport had the highest injury rate?
At Beijing 2022, ski halfpipe had the highest reported injury incidence at 30%, followed by ski big air at 28%, snowboard slopestyle at 23% and ski slopestyle at 22%.
Which sport had the highest injury rate at Paris 2024?
Current published Paris 2024 research includes injury surveillance from individual national teams, but this does not provide an equivalent whole-Games ranking across every sport. It is therefore too early to name one Paris 2024 sport as having the highest overall injury incidence from comparable Games-wide data.
Which sport had the highest injury rate at Milano Cortina 2026?
As of August 2026, a comparable published whole-Games sport-by-sport injury-surveillance analysis for Milano Cortina 2026 has not been identified. Beijing 2022 remains the latest suitable dataset for comparing Winter Olympic sports directly.
Do Olympic injury rates apply to recreational athletes?
Not directly. Olympic athletes compete at exceptional levels of speed, intensity and technical difficulty. Recreational injury risk depends on individual factors including training load, previous injury, strength, technique, recovery and the demands of the sport.
References
- Soligard T, Palmer D, Steffen K, et al. New sports, COVID-19 and the heat: sports injuries and illnesses in the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics. British Journal of Sports Medicine. 2023;57:46–54. View the Tokyo 2020 study on PubMed.
- Soligard T, Palmer D, Steffen K, et al. Olympic Games during nationwide lockdown: sports injuries and illnesses, including COVID-19, at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics. British Journal of Sports Medicine. 2023. View the Beijing 2022 study on PubMed.
- Bae J, et al. Team Korea injury and illness surveillance at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. Injury Epidemiology. 2025. View the Team Korea study on PubMed.
- Post EG, et al. Beyond the field: injury and illness patterns among Team USA athletes at the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. 2025. View the Team USA surveillance study on PubMed.
- Anderson T, Post EG, Triplett AN, et al. The impact of injury and illness on Team USA performance outcomes at the Paris 2024 Summer Olympic Games. Scientific Reports. 2025;15:36377. View the Team USA performance study.
