Sports can provide memorable experiences and teach important life lessons. However, they also carry inherent risks of injury, especially at higher levels of competition. According to studies, the majority of student athletes suffer sports-related injuries, with over 10% experiencing concussions each year. Many college athletes significantly underestimate their risk of concussion and other injuries. For contact sports like football, hockey, and rugby, athletes, parents, coaches and medical professionals must be aware of injury risks, as concussions are highly probable, and ensure appropriate treatment and recovery protocols are followed.

1. Sports is an Amazing Experience:Being Aware of Inherent Risks is an Important Part of
Participant Engagement and Enjoyment
Most people can fondly reflect on their sport memories of practices and camaraderie,
mucking out a win when all odds were stacked against the team, the incredible feeling
of hitting a ball on the sweet spot of the bat or racket, the sensation of skating across
ice for the first time, whatever the sport – sport can be an incredibly joyous and
memorable experience.
Parents watch their kids run backwards on the bases of t-ball and start planning a future
for when their kids understand the game – when it all clicks. They relish the day when
swimming becomes more coordinated than just splashing around and a basketball can
be effectively dribbled.
Summer sport camps are full of starry-eyed children, still figuring it all out, but loving
that they get to engage with others and expel energy. Sometimes, there is that perfect
melding of learned acumen and raw talent – the kids that can potentially go places;
compete regionally, nationally, internationally, earn college scholarships and maybe
even go pro.
Integrating kids into sport can help them become active and healthier adults – and
ultimately live healthier and longer than the general population, according to a recent
study. Physical fitness, mental health and longevity benefits aside, athletics supports
people in so many other ways. Sport teaches young people life skills including
teamwork, fair play, work ethic, responsibility, self-discipline, grit and resilence.
Beneath all the wonderful things sports teach, the integrity, the grit, good
sportsmanship, the value of being a good teammate, there is some amount of quietly
accepted risk.
In fact, according to data from the National Athletic Trainers Organization, 90% of
student athletes report a sports-related injury with 54% reporting that they have played
while injured. Twelve percent of high school athletes reported that they sustained
concussions and head injuries when participating in a sport.
Concussions in athletes are incredibly common. In fact, around 3.8 million concussions
occur each year in the U.S. from sports-related injuries. The Center for Disease Control
estimates that 5-10% of athletes will experience a concussion in any given sports
season, according to University of Michigan Health.

2. In Canada, an estimated one in 10 youth athletes sustains a concussion per year.
Those statistics climb as the stakes get higher; however, many college athletes are
unaware of the extent of the risk they are undertaking.
University of Colorado School of Medicine Christine Baugh, PhD, MPH, professor of
health economics Thomas G. McGuire, PhD, associate professor of health care policy
(biostatistics) Laura A. Hatfield, PhD, and their colleagues conducted a study to
establish if college football players had a full grasp of the injuries they were risking –
they don’t. According to the study, notes a Harvard Medical School article, players
“significantly underestimate their risk of concussions and other injuries.” Of a survey of
300 college football players, a third reported one or more concussions in their previous
season, and two-thirds reported one or more non-concussion injuries.
“Using athletes’ characteristics and sports and injury histories, the study team predicted
each athlete’s injury and concussion risks and compared these to athletes’ own
estimates of the likelihood they would be hurt next season,” according to the article from
Harvard Medical School. “Compared to the model’s predictions, 43% of athletes
underestimated their risk of non-concussion injury, and 42% underestimated their risk of
concussion.”
Athletes, their parents, coaches and their healthcare professionals, particularly at the
competitive high school and collegiate levels when the risk of injury increases
substantially, need to consider the risks and rewards of participating in contact sports
like football, hockey, rugby – knowing that it is highly probable that they will experience
a concussion. Concussions are going to happen so it is therefore critical for the athlete
(and their parents and coaches) to ensure that the athlete’s healthcare providers
practice the appropriate head injury and concussion treatment, rehab, recovery and
return to play protocols.