As youth sports become increasingly competitive and year-round, understanding how and why young athletes get injured is more important than ever. A recent five-season study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine followed male youth athletes training full-time in a track and field academy to uncover the most common and burdensome injuries across different event types. From muscle strains in sprinters to bone stress injuries in endurance athletes, the findings reveal how sports specialization and training loads uniquely impact developing athletes. This research highlights the types of injuries coaches and parents should be aware of—but also reveals the importance of proper recovery and injury prevention strategies for youth athletics.
It is normal for parents to want to see their youth athletes achieve high levels of success in all phases of athletics, they need to think big picture and allow their athletes to rest from their sport, focus on becoming better athletes and support recovery and injury mitigation. Strength training and athletic skills formation are the foundation of building a healthy, high-level athlete. Take a look at this study's findings.
Study Summary: Injury Risks in Young Male Track & Field Athletes
(British Journal of Sports Medicine, 2020 – Martínez-Silván et al.)
Purpose:
This study looked at injury patterns in male youth athletes (ages ~15) who trained year-round at a full-time sports academy. Researchers tracked injuries over five seasons (2014–2019) to better understand which injuries were most common, how often they happened, and how long they kept athletes out of training or competition.
How the Study Worked:
178 boys across five different event groups (sprints, jumps, endurance, throws, and non-specialized) were observed.
Injuries that caused at least one day of missed activity were recorded.
Injuries were measured in two ways:
Injury incidence: how many injuries occurred per 1,000 training/competition sessions (called athletic exposures or AE)
Injury burden: how many days of training were lost per 1,000 AE
Key Findings:
290 injuries occurred over 391 athlete seasons.
Overall, there were 4 injuries for every 1,000 sessions and about 79 days lost for every 1,000 sessions.
The thigh was the most common injury site (19%).
The most frequent injuries were muscle strains and bone stress injuries.
Stress fractures caused the most missed time.
Injuries Varied by Sport Type:
Sprinters: hamstring strains were most common
Endurance athletes: bone stress injuries (like shin splints and early stress fractures)
Jumpers: stress fractures
Throwers: meniscus or cartilage injuries
Non-specialized athletes: growth plate injuries (related to skeletal development)
Youth athletes in intense, year-round programs are most at risk for muscle strains, stress fractures, and bone-related overuse injuries. These injury patterns differ depending on the athlete’s sport focus, highlighting the need for event-specific injury prevention strategies and age-appropriate training plans.
