[Prevention of sports injuries. A realistic goal?]

At present a great deal of energy is being expended to increase athletes' performance by constantly improving equipment and material. In comparison, the efforts to direct these investments at preventing sports-related injuries are not anywhere near as great. At the same time, top-level sports are currently so attractive, especially in financial terms, that many athletes attempt to compensate for inadequate talent with excessively intensive training. This explains the continued high incidence of sports injuries, e.g., in professional alpine skiing, although preventive measures in this discipline have attained great success in reducing anterior cruciate ligament injuries. Future measures must thus be aimed at establishing educational programs about situations of risk as well as convincing athletes and sports authorities of the importance of prevention in the realm of sports injuries.