On ACL tears…

By: Melissa | May 28th, 2008

Leslie Osborne is out. She tore her ACL last week in training and will no longer play in the Olympics. Heather Mitts tore her ACL just before the last year’s World Cup and had to sit that tournament out. The New York Times recently published an excerpt from a book about the “injury epidemic” in women’s sports. Is there really a problem? Are we seeing a correlation? Jennifer Doyle says we are jumping to conclusions and not asking the right questions.

Instead of declaring there is a problem because the increase in the number of girls and women participating in sports will lead to an increase in the number of injuries sustained (duh), Doyle says we should focus on the lack of research and support for women athletes. Simply stating there is a physical difference between women and men does not actually explain why the so-called excessive injuries occur. Doyle uses the NYT author’s own point - that a girl must “move like a boy” to carry herself like a proper athlete and avoid injuries - to demonstrate that through social conditioning, girls are taught from an early age to walk, run, and jump incorrectly.

Girls are taught to walk and stand and move through the world differently. We curl around our chests - our bodies become shells, in a way, protecting/hiding everything ‘feminine’ - those bits are sources of shame, abuse, negative attention.

The important remedy to this “injury epidemic” is to acknowledge that the differences between female and male athletes is more than just physical. Doyle suggests they may also be “physiological, metabolic, social and psychological.” For example, because women are sometimes pitted against the notion we are considered the “weaker sex,” women athletes may be more reluctant to report injuries. Also, coaching practices are generally modeled specifically for males because the advent of women training over long periods is still a relatively new thing. So after putting it all into a bit of perspective, one can argue we are actually NOT facing an “injury epidemic” but instead we are entering a new phase of research and understanding that will focus on the specific needs of the female athlete.

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