Athletes' Health Unit (AHU)

The Athlete Health Unit is based on the idea of providing a framework, that allows for long-term high performance through physical and mental health, by reducing modifiable risk factors. Between and within all FIS disciplines, work streams should be harmonized and synergies used.

The Athlete Health Unit is based on the idea of providing a framework, where athletes can perform in their best possible way without unnecessary high risk and to bring all disciplines together and harmonize working streams.
History of the last two decades showed the transformation from the Injury Surveillance System (ISS), which collected data on injury and health issues in a structured way, to the alpine working group of Injury and Surveillance Prevention Program (ISPP), which focused on providing solutions for alpine skiing. Now with AHU in place, the bigger scope of “Long term high performance through physical and mental health protection” for all athletes and disciplines should be tackled.

The beginning for each action / project / measure should always be reliable information like data, experts ́ opinion (coaches, athletes, medical staff) or scientific evidence. Based on this, necessary stakeholders are included in the development and realization of specific process that should lead to implementation, which could be a rule, a recommendation, educational information, a tool, or a technical solution. Important stakeholders can either be found within the FIS system (athletes, race-directors, committees, management), in the NSAs (e.g coaches, medical staff), in the industry (coordinated via SRS), or at partner-universities and partner-organizations like IOC / AIOWF. Depending on the issue, an effective project group is installed to take action, but always stick to the process plan, including reflection loops and being transparent.

Different issues are divided into three main working-pillars to manage the complexity:

• Athlete-related topics (e.g warm-up-strategies, return-to-sport-protocols, etc.)
• Equipment-related topics (e.g protection-gear, smart-binding-systems, etc.)
• Framework-related topics (e.g course set, safety installations, etc.)

Since data (quality) is important for fact-based decisions, we also have to ensure a good database (e.g. injury-illness- surveillance, injury status application-statistics, TD-reports etc.) and to analyse these data properly.

Please note, to date, we are working on ongoing projects in the areas mentioned above, and also focus on the onboarding processes of all disciplines.

More detailed information on “physical and mental health” can be expected here by the end of the year.

CONTACT
Gerald.mitterbauer (at) fis-ski.com
Michael.lasshofer (at) fis-ski.com