title: 2016 Rio Olympics: an epidemiological study of the men's and women's Rugby-7s tournaments.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine the incidence, severity and nature of injuries sustained during the men's and women's 2014/2015 and 2015/2016 Sevens World Series (SWS) and 2016 Olympic Games Rugby Sevens tournaments.
  
  
  METHODS
  A prospective cohort study.
  
  
  METHODS
  All players from the core teams competing in the men's and women's 2014/2015 and 2015/2016 SWS (men: 15 teams; women: 11 teams) and all players from the men's (12 teams) and women's (12 teams) 2016 Rio Olympics tournaments.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The gold, silver and bronze medal-winning women's teams contained bigger players (body mass and stature) than other teams but the men's medal winning teams came from across the size spectrum of men's teams competing at Rio 2016. The incidences of injury in the men's tournaments (2014/2015 SWS: 107.7 injuries/1000 player-match-hours (95% CI 90.9 to 127.4); 2015/2016 SWS: 109.7 (95% CI 93.7 to 128.6); Rio 2016: 124.5 (95% CI 73.7 to 210.2)) were higher but not statistically significant than those in the equivalent women's tournaments (2014/2015 SWS: 88.5 (95% CI 68.4 to 114.5), p=0.250; 2015/2016 SWS: 109.4 (95% CI 84.2 to 142.2), p=0.984; Rio 2016: 71.1 (95% CI 35.6 to 142.2), p=0.208). There were no statistically significant differences between the incidences of injury at the men's and women's 2016 Rio Olympics and the equivalent 2014/2015 (men: p=0.603; women: p=0.562) and 2015/2016 (men: p=0.652; women: p=0.254) SWS.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The incidence, severity and nature of the injuries sustained during the men's and women's Rio 2016 Rugby-7s tournaments fell within the normal range of values for international Rugby-7s tournaments.
authors.affiliation: World Rugby, Dublin, Ireland.|Colin Fuller Consultancy Ltd, Sutton Bonington, UK.
authors.forename: Colin W
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Fuller
authors.affiliation: World Rugby, Dublin, Ireland.
authors.forename: Aileen
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Taylor
authors.affiliation: World Rugby, Dublin, Ireland.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Raftery
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001265:Athletic Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology*; D001827:Body Height; D001835:Body Weight; D001938:Brazil; D016021:Epidemiologic Studies; D005260:Female; D005538:Football / Q000293:injuries*; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D011446:Prospective Studies; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Epidemiology; Load; Olympics; Rugby