[Elite sports - benefit or damage]

Out of 378 elite athletes investigated in the year 1956, 28 track and field athletes, 14 footballers, 9 cyclists and 18 icehockey-players, who were complaining about serious injuries at the occasion of a sociological investigation, underwent a medical follow-up examination, 30 percent of the examined athletes stated that they suffered from permanent pain as a result of their former career in elite sports. On the other hand, they had a positive attitude about their previous physical activity and would not have missed it at all. Most of the injuries concerned joints (61) or bones (18) whereas other localisations were rather unusual. X-ray examination revealed a considerable number of orthrosis which most of the time, in spite of its sometimes rather grotesque appearance, did not cause the expectes subjective complaints.