The Summer Olympic Sports With the Most Injuries

It's hard not to get excited every four years when the Summer Olympics takes place. During this widespread sporting event, teams compete internationally for gold, silver, and bronze medals. The 2024 Summer Olympics are held in Paris, France. For about two weeks, over 10,000 athletes will display their incredible talents for the world to see.

So, what's the history of the Summer Olympics? How long has this worldwide event taken place? Well, the Summer Olympics isn't new. The first games took place in Athens Greece, in 1996. This event was held for one week during the summer. It started with just fourteen participating nations, of which ten won medals. Nine sports were included. Athletes competed in cycling, fencing, gymnastics, shooting, swimming, tennis, weightlifting, and wrestling. It's expanded a lot since then.

Watching the Summer Olympics is exciting and thrilling. You get to cheer and hope that your team wins. (After this article, check out the biggest wins in Summer Olympics history.)

Although exciting, there is a little part of some people that can't help but hold their breath while watching. Understandably so, considering many of the sports played during the Summer Olympics are dangerous! Sports aren't completely risk-free. However, there are a distinct few that pose even more dangers. It's hard to hurt your ankle while swimming, but what about while running?

To curate this list of the Summer Olympic sports with the most injuries, 24/7 Tempo consulted a North Shore News Article. Within this article is a detailed chart by the British Journal of Sports Medicine highlighting rates of injuries for the 2020 Japan Summer Olympics.

Is it really all that surprising that boxing leads as one of the most dangerous sports in the Summer Olympics? It's so easy to face an injury after receiving blows to the head or falling. According to the source, during the 2022 Tokyo Summer Olympics, the rate of injury was 27 per 100 athletes suffered injuries. About 14 of the 27 recovered in just a day.

While boxing hasn't been around since the first Summer Olympics, it was introduced in the second at the 1904 Summer Olympics. Currently, the United States holds the most medals in boxing. Cuba follows after with 78 medals, not including from the 2024 games.

BMX racing and boxing hold similar injury records. During the 2020 Summer Olympics, the rate of injury was 27 of 100 athletes. Ten of the 27 were out for over a week, while only 13 recovered by the next day. BMX is an extreme sport. Anything can go wrong! You can easily crack open your head from just one fall.

While cycling has been in the summer games since the beginning, BMX has only been involved since 2008. In the 2008 Summer Olympics, Māris Štrombergs from Latvia won gold in the men's division.

There are two types of BMX sports events on our list, the second being freestyle. Interestingly, there were fewer BMX freestyle injuries than BMX racing injuries in 2020. For BMX freestyle, the rate of injury was 23 of 100 athletes.

BMX freestyle is very new. The 2024 Summer Olympics will be its second official Summer Olympics.

Following BMX freestyle is another dangerous Olympic sport, skateboarding. Skateboarding is intense. While it's been popular in the media for a few decades, the sport didn't make its Olympic debut until the 2020 Summer Games. Japan currently holds the most medals, including three gold!

Skateboarding comes with a lot of risk. Even with a helmet and knee pads, one falls and you can break something important. According to the data, skateboarding had a rate of injury of about 21 per 100 athletes.

Surprisingly, karate isn't higher on this list. Most people would assume it's just as tricky and dangerous as boxing. Still, it's pretty high on this list. At the 2020 games, karate had a rate of injury of 19, including nine out for more than a week.

Karate is pretty new to the Olympics. It was first introduced at the 2020 Tokyo Summer Games. There were two events: Kumite and Kata and sixty participants. The host nation, Japan, holds the most medals.

Next on our list is handball with an injury rate of 18 per 100 athletes, just one shy of Karate. Handball is fast-paced and uses a lot of strength. Not only are hand injuries common, but so are back and knee.

For the 2024 Summer Olympics, there are two handball tournaments, one for women and the other for men. You can expect to see 336 competitors from 16 nations compete between July 25 to August 11.

Another high-contact physical sport with a high rate of injury is wrestling. Considering wrestling is very active, this isn't surprising. Wrestlers face all sorts of injuries to their heads, backs, joints, bones, and faces. At the 2020 Summer Olympics, the rate of injury for wrestlers was 16 per 100 athletes. A third recovered in a day, while another third took over a week.

Wrestling has been a part of the Summer Olympics from the beginning. It appeared in all Summer Olympics, except for the 1904 games. As of now, the Soviet Union (URS) holds the most gold medals with the United States lagging closely behind.

Golf isn't an extremely active sport. You don't have to wrestle anyone on the floor, punch balls across a field, or take hits, and yet it's high on our list. Golf has a rate of injury of 15 per 100 athletes.

Golf is a fun sport to watch during the Summer Olympics. It's calming and yet thrilling at the same time. Interestingly, golf was originally part of the Summer Olympics during its first two events, but games were canceled in the following years. The sport was reinstated in 2016, and now the United States holds the most medals.

Like several sports on this list, sport climbing is fairly new to the Summer Olympics. The sport only made its debut during the 2020 Tokyo Games. Sport climbing is risky and requires balance, strength, and concentration. You also need a lot of upper-body strength to play.

The rate of injury in the 2020 Summer Olympics for sport climbing was 16 per 100 athletes. As of now Slovenia and Spain are tied for the most gold medals.

Surprisingly this Korean martial art isn't higher on this list. Taekwondo is not easy to learn or master. It takes years of practice, dedication, and concentration. You can easily get back, neck, and bone injuries from playing. In the 2020 Games, Taekwondo had a rate of injury of 14 per 100 athletes.

While Taekwondo has only been a full medal sport since 2000, it's been featured as a demonstration sport twice. The first time it was featured was at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea. South Korea holds the most medals. No country is a close second.

Last but not least on our list of Summer Olympic sports with the most injuries is judo, another high-physical contact sport. In 2020, judo had a rate of injury of 14 per 100 athletes, like with Taekwondo. Of these 14, four took over a week to recover.

Judo first starred in the Summer Olympics at the 1964 Games in Tokyo, Japan. It wasn't included in the following Games but has appeared in every event since. Women didn't participate though until 1992. As of 2022, Japan holds the most medals. After Japan is France, although not following closely behind.

Interested in more stories about the Summer Olympics? Click here for 7 iconic stories of sportsmanship from the Summer Olympics.