Gymnastics is almost as dangerous as rugby, with thousands of children suffering injuries each year, a new report indicates.

Figures seen by The Times suggest that nearly the same ratio of young gymnasts end up needing medical treatment as players of aggressive contact sports. This is mirrored by American research showing that injuries from gymnastics are as common as those caused by football and ice hockey.

It concludes: “Gymnastics has one of the highest injury rates of all girls’ sports. Increased skill difficulty practised at younger ages, coupled with maintaining the intensity and hours of training required to be competitive, has led to concern regarding to the risk, severity and long-term effects of injury to young gymnasts.”

British data shows that about 2,600 children under 16 are taken to hospital each year with injuries from gymnastics. The youngsters suffer broken bones, strains, sprains, dislocations and head injuries. Many hurt themselves while performing handsprings, somersaults and headstands, or in falls from equipment.

This is just 200 fewer than the 2,800 youth injuries from cricket even though many more are thought to play the sport. There are 15,000 youth rugby injuries a year but about two million children play that sport, compared with the estimated 500,000 who participate in gymnastics. For every 10,000 children doing gymnastics each year, 52 will end up going to hospital, compared with 75 young rugby players.

Medical professionals say parents putting pressure on their children to succeed are a possible factor for so many injuries. Some are coercing their children into excelling in many disciplines, which puts developing bodies under immense strain.

Sammy Margo, a spokeswoman for the Chartered Society of Physiotherapists, said: “Twenty years ago 1 per cent of my patients were children, now it’s 25 per cent. I do see many children suffering gymnastics injuries. I’m also seeing something I never saw 20 years ago – children with lower back problems. Parents are stressing their children out by pushing them into everything.

“Some are under pressure to perform at incredibly high levels. What these children [doing gymnastics] are being asked to do is go beyond their normal stretch limit.”

The research, conducted at a children’s hospital in Ohio, was the first national study of gymnastics injuries. The results echoed British statistics by showing that 5 in every 1,000 gymnasts aged 6 to 17 injured themselves each year. Most injuries happened at school or sports clubs but injuries at home were more common among those aged 6 to 11.

The report said: “Gymnasts, unlike football or rugby players, are not taught to fall in a manner that diffuses the impact of the fall across as much of the body surface as possible.”

A spokesman for the Rugby Football Union said that children were allowed to play only tag rugby, a noncontact form of the sport, until they were 11, when scrummages and tackling were introduced gradually.

“Introducing rugby to young players takes place in a controlled and structured way, and doing it safely is a key element in the training of our accredited coaches and referees,” he said.

Steve Green, a former gymnast who is now the programme manager at British Gymnastics, suffered a cruciate knee injury, which curtailed his career. He said that the flexibility that helps gymnasts to succeed also makes some of them more likely to suffer from joint problems. Most injuries were caused over time rather than by impact from falls, he added.

“Like most sports, if you’re going to do it at a serious level it requires a huge amount of commitment – probably about 25 to 30 hours a week from the age of 14,” he said.

A spokesman for British Gymnastics said that there had been a huge increase in the past five years in the number of young people engaged the gymnastics. He said: “There’s always been a core base but now Britain is the most successful it’s ever been in terms of medals and getting gymnasts on television.”

Gabby Logan, the television presenter and former international gymnast, gave up the sport after developing sciatica. She also knocked her front teeth out, broke her nose and suffered concussion in falls.

She said: “You never know how you’re physiologically predisposed in a sport until you’re too far down the line. You have to work around your limitations. In the end I gave the sport up because it was too much for my back. A lot of the girls I trained with had back problems from hyperextension.”

Her husband Kenny Logan, the former rugby player, “got away looking physically unscathed” from his career, Mrs Logan said. However, he broke his nose four times, was concussed three times in his last year of playing and had a metal plate put in his wrist.

Catastrophic falls

Julissa Gomez, 15, was paralysed after hyperextending her neck during warm-ups at the World Sports Fair in Tokyo in 1988. She later died of complications

Wang Yan, a Chinese Olympic gymnast who was competing at her national championships last year, was paralysed after falling headfirst from the uneven bars and breaking her neck

In 1998 Sang Lan, another Chinese gymnast, then 16 and competing at the Goodwill Games in New York City, fell performing a warm-up vault and fractured her spine, also becoming paralysed

Source: Times database

Risks

Causes of injury in child gymnastics

42.3% Handsprings and flips
30.7% Cartwheels
8.9% Handstands
5.8% Dismounts and landings
4.9% Somersaults
3.5% Backbends or walkovers
2.1% Splits
1.7% Headstands

Source: Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Columbus, Ohio

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