Analysis of wheelchair falls in team sports at the Paralympic Games: video-based descriptive comparison between the Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 games

Objectives: To identify the fall characteristics of athletes in wheelchair rugby and wheelchair basketball during the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games and descriptively compare these with those of the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.

Design: Cross-sectional analysis.

Primary and secondary outcome measures: We obtained video footage from the International Paralympic Committee of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games that included 8 teams from each of the 18 wheelchair rugby and 10 wheelchair basketball games (men and women). The data were analysed to evaluate the number of falls, class difference (low or high pointer), time of play during the fall, phase of play, contact with other athletes, fall direction, fall location and the body part that first contacted the floor during the fall. These data from the Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 games were compared.

Results: Overall, 430 falls (rugby, 104; men's basketball, 230 and women's basketball, 96) occurred (average per game ±SD: 5.8±3.1, 23.0±5.4 and 9.6±5.0, respectively). Significant differences in class, direction, fall location and body part point of contact between the three sports were observed. In wheelchair rugby, falls occurred mainly in high pointers and tended to be more lateral due to contact. In wheelchair basketball, falls occurred more in female high-pointers and in male low pointers, with more forward falls due to forward contact. Unlike in the Rio 2016 games, no difference between the events based on the presence or absence of contact was observed in the Tokyo 2020 games.

Conclusions: The number of falls increased in Tokyo 2020 compared with Rio 2016, with no significant difference in the characteristics of falls between the Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 games. Only in men's wheelchair basketball, the number of falls in low pointers significantly increased in the Tokyo 2020 games when compared with that in the Rio 2016 games.