Snowboardcross was the most hazardous sport at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, with 73 per cent of female athletes sustaining injuries during the rough-and-tumble races, according to a medical study.

The report, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, found that at least 11 per cent of all athletes at the games in February sustained injuries – including 20 concussions.

The study reported a total of 287 injuries among the 2,567 athletes, including the “catastrophic injury” that caused the death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili in a training crash a few hours before the opening ceremony on Feb. 12.

The findings illustrate some of the inherent dangers in pushing the boundaries in already risky high-speed winter sports.

“Over all, we are a little concerned about the increasing number of injuries that are not just minor,” International Olympic Committee medical commission head Arne Ljungqvist told The Associated Press on Monday. “Some of this can be regulated by stricter rules.

“But it seems there is a conflict – the interest of making sport more interesting perhaps but also a little more dangerous. Some athletes want to have more speed, but on the other hand we have to look after the safety of the athletes.”

The IOC-funded project is the first in-depth study of injuries at a Winter Olympics. It follows similar research at the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing, where 9 per cent of athletes reported injuries.

Mr. Ljungqvist said the Vancouver report will serve as a basis for working with international federations to minimize injury risks at the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.

The findings are based on reports from 82 national team doctors and designated medical centres in Vancouver and Whistler. The study said the actual figures were likely higher because not all injuries were reported.

About 25 per cent of the injuries were serious enough to result in athletes being unable to train or compete. The most common injury areas were the head, spine and knees; bruising and ligament and muscle sprains were the most frequent types of injury.

The highest-risk sports were bobsled, hockey, short-track speed-skating, Alpine and freestyle skiing and snowboardcross, where between 15 per cent to 35 per cent of athletes sustained injuries.

The study found that snowboardcross produced the highest percentage of injuries (35 per cent) of any Olympic events. An astounding 73 per cent of the women – 16 of the 22 competitors – sustained injuries. For men, the figure was 11 per cent – four of the 35 athletes.

Snowboardcross was brought into the Olympics in 2006 to inject some life, youth and X Games attitude into the Winter Games. It features athletes pushing, shoving and hurtling down a hill at breakneck speeds. Among men in Vancouver, the highest rate of injuries was in short-track speed-skating, with 27.8 per cent. Bobsled had a 20 per cent overall injury rate, followed by hockey at 18 per cent. Over all, the injury rate at the Games was higher among women (13 per cent) than men (9 per cent).