Somatotypes in skiing

Abstract

Although the available studies on body types in ski sports are relatively sparse and rather old, there are clear indications that, especially in alpine skiing, top athletes have become stronger and heavier in the last three decades [43, 24]. According to Bahr and Tone [5] as well as Mildner et al. [19], the anthropo metric profile and the somatotype, in particular the extent of muscular develop ment in the lower extremities, are to be regarded as significant intrinsic risk factors for alpine skiing trauma [20].

Especially among men, the downhill racers tend to have a more pyknomorphhyperplastic constitution type or more mesomorph somatotype with longer trunk and shorter legs and higher BMI, while the slalom specialists tend to more leptomorphic values with longer legs and shorter trunk.