Knee injuries unavoidable for college athletes

Acacia O'Connor Guest Writer

For collegiate athletes, practice is rigorous, competitions are intense, and courage, passion and determination are necessary virtues. Athletes, both male and female, must be fearless and tenacious when it comes to battles on the field or court. However, there is one fear that most athletes hold, whether secretly or openly: the fear of injury.

It is difficult to rise to and compete at the college level without encountering an injury of some kind. Ankle sprains, pulled muscles and various other strains are the hallmarks of athleticism. Unfortunately, there is one injury that has become increasingly common among collegiate athletes, especially female athletes: knee injuries.

Knee injuries, like all other injuries, vary in severity and levels of discomfort. The most serious knee injury, however, has also become one of the most common and therefore, the most dreaded by male and female athletes alike: Anterior Cruciate Ligament injuries.

“She tore her ACL.” That statement weighs like a death sentence among athletes and their teammates. It translates into many games missed, if not entire seasons, painful surgery, and long rehabilitation. Female Brewers have become closely acquainted with this type of injury over the past several years. And they are not alone.

The prevalence of knee injuries among college-aged athletes, especially women, has been a highly investigated topic in sports medicine in the past decade. ACL injuries occur most frequently in sports such as basketball, soccer, volleyball, alpine skiing, and gymnastics. They often occur without any contact with others, while doing motions and activities the athlete has done many times before. The high occurrence in female athletes has been attributed to various interrelated factors. These factors include ligament laxity, muscle imbalance, playing surface, and the use of ankle braces. The relevance of hormones, especially estrogen, is currently being investigated as well. None of these have been found to be true in all cases, but are general contributors. Also, the determination as to whether or not these risk factors are physically inherent to all women has yet to be made.

Studies have also looked into the increasing numbers of women in competitive sports over the past two decades since the passing of Title IX. This has led to discussion about the contrasts between athletic training of males versus that of females from childhood to adulthood. Male individuals have typically been more involved in athletic activities as children that serve as training for later activities.

Currently, there are numerous varsity women Brewers on the sidelines because of ACL tears. Lizzie Evans ’06, member of the women’s soccer and basketball teams, recently suffered her third ACL tear. Evans suffered her first left ACL tear as a freshman in high school during a basketball game. The tear was repaired by surgery involving an allograft, i.e. using donor tissue from a cadaver. The same surgery was performed a year later when Evans tore her right ACL. Her third tear, which came about a month into this year’s soccer season, could have been caused by insufficient meshing of the tissue from her prior surgery.

Evans’ injury plays on the mind of her teammates. Rachel Cerlen ’07, who is also a member of the women’s basketball team is very aware of the possibility of a knee injury.

“Knowing that two players on my team hurt their knees in less than one year and that women are more susceptible to injuries than men makes me very nervous,” said Cerlen.

Strength and weight training as well as increased attention to technique may help slightly reduce the risk of knee injury. However, so much remains unknown about the causes of these injuries in general and specifically the causes in women, that it is hard to pin-point effective preventative actions. Unfortunately, for most collegiate athletes, the risk of knee injury is unavoidable.