Injuries and illness of athletes at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic summer games visiting outside facilities

Shuji Sakanashi; Hideharu Tanaka; Hiroyuki Yokota; Yasuhiro Otomo; Tomohiko Masuno; Kousuke Nakano; Junichi Inoue; Manabu Sugita; Takahiko Tokunaga; Nagisa Kato; Tomoya Kinoshi; Hironori Inoue; Hiroto Numata; Koshi Nakagawa; Ryo Sagisaka; Shota Tanaka; Tetsuya Miyamoto; Takao Akama

doi:10.1016/j.smhs.2024.01.003

Injuries and illness of athletes at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic summer games visiting outside facilities

Sports Med Health Sci. 2024 Jan 17;6(1):48-53. doi: 10.1016/j.smhs.2024.01.003. eCollection 2024 Mar.

Authors

Shuji Sakanashi^{1

2}, Hideharu Tanaka^{1

2

3

4}, Hiroyuki Yokota^{1

5}, Yasuhiro Otomo^{1

6}, Tomohiko Masuno⁷, Kousuke Nakano⁸, Junichi Inoue⁹, Manabu Sugita¹⁰, Takahiko Tokunaga^{3

11}, Nagisa Kato^{1

12}, Tomoya Kinoshi^{1

2

3

4}, Hironori Inoue^{1

3}, Hiroto Numata^{1

5}, Koshi Nakagawa³, Ryo Sagisaka¹³, Shota Tanaka⁴, Tetsuya Miyamoto¹, Takao Akama^{1

14}

Affiliations

¹ The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, Tokyo, Japan.
² Department of Sports Medicine Kokushikan University, Tokyo, Japan.
³ Graduate School of Emergency Medical System, Kokushikan University, Tokyo, Japan.
⁴ Research Institute of Disaster Management and EMS Kokushikan University, Tokyo, Japan.
⁵ Graduate School of Health and Medical Science, Nippon Sports Science University, Japan.
⁶ National Hospital Organization Disaster Medical Center, Tokyo, Japan.
⁷ Graduate School of Medicine, Nippon Medical University, Tokyo, Japan.
⁸ Saitama City Hospital, Emergency Department, Saitama, Japan.
⁹ Nippon Medical School Musashikosugi Hospital, Emergency and Critical Care Center, Knagawa, Japan.
¹⁰ Graduate School of Medicine, Juntendo University, Tokyo, Japan.
¹¹ Emergency Lifesaving Academy Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
¹² Tokyo Medical and Dental University Hospital, Trauma and Acute Critical Care Center, Tokyo, Japan.
¹³ Department of Integrated Science and Engineering for Sustaiable Society, Chuo University, Japan.
¹⁴ Faculty of Sport Sciences, Waseda University, Saitama, Japan.

Abstract

This study aimed to identify the reasons for transferring athletes to local medical facilities during the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Data on 567 injuries and other illnesses of athletes treated at the on-site clinics were collected from the Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee. Of these, 84 athletes who required outpatient care during the Games were registered for this survey. During the Olympic and Paralympic Games, 66 (8.3/1 000) and 18 (7.2/1 000) athletes, respectively, consulted external medical facilities. In the Olympic Games, the reasons for these visits included 48 cases (72.7%) of injuries, 13 (19.7%) cases of illnesses, and 5 (7.6%) cases of heat stroke illness (HSI). Of these patients, 56 (84.9%) were treated as outpatients and 10 (15.1%) were hospitalized, while three of these patients required hospitalization for > 7 days. On the other hand, in the Paralympics Games, there were 7 (38.8%) cases of injuries, 9 (50.0%) other illnesses, 1 (5.6%) case of HSI, and 1 (5.6%) other cases, of which 11 (61.1%) were treated as outpatients and 7 (38.9%) were hospitalized, but none was hospitalized for > 7 days. Injuries accounted for 70% of the total cases at the 2021 Olympic Games, but only three (0.05%) were severe cases that required hospitalization for more than 1 week. In contrast, in the Paralympic Games, other illnesses accounted for approximately half of the total cases. This study provides details on the extent of injuries and other illnesses that were transferred to outside facilities, which has not been documented in previous games.

Keywords: 2020 Tokyo; Heat-related illness; Illness; Olympic games; Paralympic games; Sports injuries.