wearing protective gear during competition?

[brightphoton]

When I was younger and more foolish, I used to skateboard. Wearing safety gear, even a helmet, was completely uncool. It took a few scrapes for me to learn my lesson about coolness vs. preventable injuries. It's also uncool to wear protective gear in figure skating as well. I never thought about it until I read this quote from Ashley Wagner, after she had three concussions.

When I was a kid, I was very much a numbers person, I loved math and science, I was really quick, memory was never a problem. Then I suffered the first concussion and the two after that. Along with headaches, I couldn't process numbers any more. I couldn't figure out science. People would start talking to me, and all of a sudden my brain wouldn't process it as English. I couldn't think of the words to respond, so I was trapped in this silent panic. Memory to this day is really difficult for me. I have trouble recalling words. I have trouble focusing on conversations. Oftentimes, I find I have to pause and really think about what I'm trying to say to be able to have a conversation.

Dude! I expected this from American football players, but not figure skaters. This is a serious problem.

I know we want our skaters to look pretty and wear costumes, but it's also a dangerous sport. Shouldn't the status quo change -- shouldn't it be cool to wear head protection or a crash pad during competition, if only for show of solidarity about safety? People could even put rhinestones on, and make them fashionable.

Even though it's still uncool to wear a helmet in amateur skateboarding, during the professional tournaments, everyone wears safety gear, if only for the professional skaters to make PDAs to kids about "safety first," even though even they themselves privately take a dim view of helmets. I guess by wearing more gear, there are also more square inches to plaster sponsor logos on.


Roundtable: Concussions a concern in non-contact sports

http://espn.go.com/olympics/story/_...are-concussion-concerns-roundtable-discussion

 

[karne]

Sorry, brightphoton, I meant to answer this earlier.

The problem with the concept of protective gear and concussion in figure skating is that figure skating concussions are not always impact-related. Joshua's was a whiplash concussion. Lucinda Ruh's was from spinning. And there's simply no protective gear in the world, short of trussing the skaters up in a motorsport-style HANS device, that will prevent those.

 

[brightphoton]

I'm not sure Ashley's concussion would have been prevented by a NASCAR helmet, but it probably would have helped. I'd guess a significant number of concussions could be prevented.

I'm just so happy she has her silver World's medal. It upsets me that she has sacrificed her memory for this sport, her ability to do math and science. At least now she has one of the big medals.