Figure skating is a dangerous sport. It is difficult to learn, and some beginners feel they spend more time on the ice after falling than actually skating. When learning to do spins, beginning skaters sometimes gash their legs or ankles with their blades. Throughout their careers, skaters sprain and strain muscles, suffer stress fractures, tear ligaments and get bruised. They can have the wind knocked out of them, can dislocate collar bones or even break bones from falls. Concussions can also happen.
Singles skaters can reach speeds over 20 mph, and ladies in pairs skating move even faster doing throw jumps, and at those speeds the risk of injury when things go wrong is great. Pairs skaters doing side-by-side spins too close to each another have been seriously injured when the blade of the free leg of one skater hits the head of the other. A mistake on the part of the lady, the man or both can lead to a lift's ending in a fall. These can be very dangerous because the lady can be 10'-12' in the air, and fall to the ice in a dead weight. The couple can also fall on top of each other.
The ankles and knees take a beating in figure skating. In ice dancing, the piston-like movements of the knees cause wear and tear on the joints, and in singles and pairs the impact of thousands of jumps mean few competitive skaters make it to their late 20s without having one or more surgeries on their knees, ankles or shins.
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