Waht is the most dangerous event in Track and Field?

Bad Wigins wrote:

I can't watch a triple jump without feeling for those poor suckers' joints. OW.

The only reason the event even exists is some grecophile europeans looked at impossibly good ancient jump results and figured they must have jumped three times in a row.

They didn't figure that maybe it was just the sum of three separate jumps, which would be a damn good idea and make LJ much more interesting to watch, kind of like a race.

That is a cool idea.

Steeple with sharks

Joggy Hobber wrote:

did that happen wrote:

Has someone really died from the shot put? I realize the weight could kill a person but the shot just doesn't travel as far as the others.

An official was killed last year during weight throw warmups at Cornell.

Here's a story about one person killed by the shot. There've been others:

And I saw the official killed at Cornell. He failed the first rule for throws officials during warmup: never take your eyes off the circle. Wasn't the thrower's fault, and the actual layout there is one of the safest I've seen--the official just wasn't paying attention.

OTOH if you're too close, even keeping your eyes open won't help--you can't react fast enough. When I was a young coach at Syracuse, I volunteered to officiate the 35lb weight at a meet with Penn State. We had no cage then, but I wanted to do whatever I could to help the program, so there I was, standing within ten feet of the circle. If any of the athletes had "lost" a throw that headed in my direction--which is easy enough to do--there's no chance I could have jumped out of the way.

I was fine during the event, but when I looked back on it later I wanted to vomit. That was an incredibly foolish risk to have taken.

Anyway, *per participant* I certainly think that pole vault is the most dangerous for the athletes themselves. I've never known a collegian who vaulted for four years and did *not* sustain a major injury.

The hammer can go any direction depending on when you release it.

I was hit by an indoor weight throw implement during a workout once.

Hello my name is Alberto wrote:

DONT DO IT GAYLEN!!! wrote:

according to the LRC board, running the 3K at US indoors a month after running the OT 'thon trials. it's suicide apparently.

Ever hear of Andro Gel?

Steve Magness says girls who run close to their 3000 pb two days after a mile pb is suicidal or must be on drugs. Because, you know, their uteruses might fall out.

Running an indoor 3000m against the University of Guelph's goon squad

The hurdle events can be nasty at the high school level. A lot of those kids get thrown into the hurdle races without actually knowing how to hurdle properly. Jumping over pelvis-level barriers while sprinting is not a great idea unless you have the coordination, flexibility, and training to get over them safely.

Even those winning the majority of their races often have bad form that can lead to injuries. When I was in high school I was a 4A state finalist in the 55m (indoor) and 300m hurdle races. And a conference champ in the 110s. But in the high hurdle races (55 & 110), my form was not very good because I lacked the flexibility to clear the hurdles closely without dragging my trail leg across the top of them. This left the inside of my ankle black & blue, and sometimes bleeding, after nearly every race. Over the course of 3 years of competition, I had significant nerve damage there, and it wasn't until years after I stopped competing that normal sensation started coming back in my trail leg ankle.

In college this was even more of a problem since the hurdles are slightly higher. I ended up only doing the 400m hurdles.

nothing more dangerous than iaaf official in any capacity.

i've coached some hurdlers who would hit their ankle a lot, so I improved their hurdle form...

I've personally seen multiple officials injured by the shot. One was killed at the USAs in 2005 during the junior shot (warm-ups). One was taken off the field at Hayward by ambulance at the USAs in 2001 or 2002 (after Cantwell hooked one out of bounds).

I've seen injuries with all four throwing implements of varying degrees of seriousness. Keep your head up and don't turn your back on the circle.

Article about the official that died during shot put warmups. Heartbreaking and you have to feel for the athlete.

Distance running, particularly long distance at the elite level, seems to cause all sorts of ailments. Asthma, thyroid stuff, testosterone problems, eating disorders, heart problems, etc...

If you take your distance training runs to the roads, you risk getting hit by a car (something that doesn't happen in the pole vault very often).

Discuss, moran.

lease wrote:

Anyway, *per participant* I certainly think that pole vault is the most dangerous for the athletes themselves. I've never known a collegian who vaulted for four years and did *not* sustain a major injury.

What?!!! I also think that pole vault is the most dangerous event on the track in terms a risk of major injuries/death, but that is ridiculous that you have "never known a collegian who vaulted for four years and did *not* sustain a major injury." Wherever you went to school must have had a bad vault coach. A good vault coach should absolutely refuse to let his athletes on too big of a grip or too big of a pole for their ability (and consistency is an ability too).

I coach vault and to me, there is no excuse for anything other than very rarely being "stood up" in vault if coached right, and it should never be to the point where they end up on the runway. Practice should always be done with the standards at 80. And if an athlete is consistently drifting to one side or the other, they are gripping above their ability to plant consistently.

If any of my athletes violate what I consider to be safe vaulting, they're going down in grip, pole, etc as I deem necessary. Or I pull them for the day if they are just getting mentally fatigued.

My vaulter teammates in college never had any major injuries. All of their injuries were non vault related and the same strains and pulls that other sprint athletes get from training.

I think if you look at the best vaulters in the world, you'll see that almost none of them have any major vault related injuries. Renaud's lost lower grip last year was a rare occurrence. His mistake was setting a world record and then going for me. He was probably way too pumped up and excited to possibly come back and focus and vault safely.

Serious injuries in the vault should be extremely rare. Anything else is poor coaching. The only "common injuries" in vault should be strains, pulls, and maybe the occasional sprained ankle from stepping off the mat carelessly.

Race walking kills.

I think steeplechase edges out pole vault. It has all the dangers of distance running + even more dangerous barriers than the hurdles + chance of drowning.

Honorable mention: Indoor 4x4. Collisions at those high speeds can be really dangerous, especially when falling on the rail or over the side of the track.

Depending on how you define dangerous, I'd be curious about the statistics for distance running. I remember when Ryan Shay died in the NYC Marathon (due to a pre-existing medical condition, but still), I remember somebody dying in one of my local 25ks, I remember standout a standout athlete in my high school conference dying by getting hit by a car, my friend's dad died of a heart attack while running, and I feel like we often see news articles about people getting killed by cars. Granted, if we include hobby-jogging (which is me), we have a huge sample size so these examples might be anecdotal, but training for distance running certainly has its hazards.

Distance Running.

Think about it.

I bet Gunther Weidlinger votes for steeple being the most dangerous