Which Sport Causes the Most Injuries?

Perform any statistical study into which sport causes the most injuries, your mind may jump right to football. However, the answer might surprise you - so read on to learn.

Sports that cause a high number of injuries include:

• Basketball
• Football
• Cheerleading
• ATV riding

Basketball versus Football

The opportunities for injury in football are astounding. With as many active players as there are on the field of play at any given time (up to 11 players on each team), and because of the fact that the sport of football requires physical contact in order for every play to end,

However, dig a little deeper than the surface and you’ll find that there is one sport that surpasses the vast amount of injuries inflicted in the game of football, and does so with half the number of active players - basketball. With only 5 people for each team who are active in the area of play at any given time, the sport of basketball easily surpasses American football in the number of reported injuries. There are a number of reasons for this.

• More people play basketball than American football at every level, from high school to professionally.
• Basketball is a high-intensity physical sport in which the players are not protected at all, increases the possibility for physical detriment.

Sport That Causes the Most Injuries in Women

Direct your research into which sport causes the most injuries to a females and you will find that cheerleading is the sport that causes the most annual report injuries for women. The reasons are:

• The style and the amount of training needed just to learn to participate properly
• The amount of active participants
• The physicality of the sport
• The intensity that is required to perform the activity at a competitive level

There is very little competition against cheerleading as the predominantly female sport with the most annual reported injuries. The closest sport to cheerleading in terms of reported injuries in female athletes is the closely-related sport of gymnastics. The style of the sport alone is enough to cause injury if the participant doesn’t train correctly, or train often enough.

Deadliest Sport

Recreational vehicles, or ATV riding, is statistically more fatal than any other sport, with an average of between 200 and 300 deaths every year. 

Prevention is the Name of the Game

There are many private companies and personal trainers who specialize in training athletes who wish to compete in their chosen sport but who want to do so in as safe a manner as possible. With the proper athletic training, the human body can become much more resilient and resistant to injury, and can also be taught to recover from injury more quickly.