Lower extremity injuries in U.S. national fencing team members and U.S. fencing Olympians.

Introduction: Fencing is growing rapidly in popularity and competitiveness with fencers beginning at a younger age and competing in more tournaments. Even though fencing has a low risk of time-loss injury, fencers are inevitably going to experience injuries if proper athletic training and prevention does not occur. We aim to describe and compare the lower extremity injuries experienced by fencers that have trained at the highest level in the sport. We hypothesized that athletes who fenced longer would suffer more knee and hip injuries and report lower IKDC and HOS scores.Methods: This is an epidemiology study distributed to members of the U.S. national team and Olympic team from 1980 to 2018. The electronic survey included questions regarding age, weapon, number of years fencing, number of national and Olympic teams, injuries on the dominant and nondominant hip and knee, time missed due to injury, and methods for treatment. The survey also included the International Knee Demographic Committee (IKDC) and Hip Outcome Score (HOS).Results: There were 153 national team members between July 1980 and July 2018, 110 with contact information. A total of 77 athletes submitted the survey, consisting of 30 females and 47 males. Female fencers had more hip injuries and lower IKDC and HOS scores than their male counterparts. In total, there were 71 injuries to the dominant (front) knee and 28 injuries to the nondominant (back) knee. There were 32 dominant hip injuries and 5 nondominant hip injuries. Saber fencers reported the most dominant and nondominant hip and knee injuries.Conclusion: The intense, repetitive and asymmetrical movements involved in fencing affect the weight bearing leg and the nondominant leg in all weapons. Special attention should be paid to female fencers as they experience more hip and knee injuries resulting in impaired joint function.