Information about a piece of news titled Prestigious price for Grethe Myklebust in Scandinavian Sports Medicine
Prestigious price for Grethe Myklebust in Scandinavian Sports Medicine
Intoduction
During the Scandinavian Congress of Medicine and Science in Sports in Malmø, Sweden, Grethe Myklebust received the best abstract award for her recent work in ACL injury prevention.
More than 400 participants and presenters from the Scandinavian countries, but also Europe and North America, shared recent research and clinical experience, and one of the highlighted topics this year was on issues of gender and women in sport.
For almost 20 years has Grethe Myklebust been active in Sports Medicine as a sports physiotherapist, and she has dedicated her research to injury prevention in team sports and ACL injuries in female handball in particular.
ACL injuries can be prevented
This prestigious Scandinavian Sports Medicine Society award was given based on a 10-year prospective cohort study on more than 100 top 3 level female handball teams. ACL injuries within these teams have been registered and – importantly – the amount of work each team and injured player has put into injury prevention in this period.
- “The evidence is there, ACL injuries can be prevented, but the existing exercises programs need to be used,” says Grethe Myklebust.
During these 10 years, injury prevention campaigns have been introduced to teams, the SKADEFRI-webpage has been developed and hundreds of workshops have been held around Norway to educate coaches and players.
… and it works!! ACL injuries can be prevented! The trend in Norwegian elite female handball speaks a clear message.
A paper describing the details of the 10-year Norwegian success story has been submitted and will be published internationally soon. Keep an eye out for it.
Close contact to key persons in the Federation is important
Olympic Champions as role models: Before the European Championships for women in 2010, the OSTRC, the Norwegian Handball Federation, and the Norwegian Broadcasting TV2 cooperated on film stunts with 4 famous National players, showing injury prevention exercises, which were broadcast during the Championship games.
This was a big success. In addition to showing a variety of simple, but handball specific exercises, the players explained their experiences in how and why these exercises should be incorporated into daily practice time.
- “Using high-profile players is en effective strategy to attract attention from both the young players as well as from coaches, parents, and other stakeholders,” Grethe adds.