*4.2. Application*

The quantitative and qualitative monitoring of injuries sustained by contestants in high-ranking judo competitions is conducted by the EJU, aiming to use the data to develop and constantly review the rules of judo competitions. Thanks to the information obtained from this type of reports, the EJU has already modified the relevant regulations on several occasions. For example, some throws or defense against throws which exposed players to an increased risk of injury have now been ruled illegal.

#### **5. Conclusions**

The overall incidence of injuries during Europe's high-level judo tournaments in the period 2005–2020 was 2.5%, with an incidence of serious injuries of 0.5%. Judo is therefore one of the Olympic sports with the lowest injury rate in competitions. The knee, shoulder, and elbow are the anatomical locations most prone to injury, with 20% of all injuries occurring in the upper limbs (including the shoulder) and 30% in the lower limbs. Sprains are the most frequent type of injury. There is no statistically significant difference between men and women in the overall injury rate, although women have significantly more elbow injuries. The women −52 kg weight category shows a remarkably higher injury incidence—this should be further investigated. It is remarkable that lightweights suffer more elbow injuries. Serious injuries are uncommon, and potentially very dangerous injuries, such as commotio cerebri and neck injuries, have a very low incidence rate. No judoka had to be transported to hospital after unconsciousness form strangulation/choking techniques.

#### *What Are the New Findings?*


**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, W.B. and P.S.; methodology, W.B., P.S. and Ł.R.; software, G.B.; validation, N.M. (Nicola Maffulli), Ł.R. and N.M. (Nikos Malliaropoulos); formal analysis, W.B. and P.S.; investigation, W.J.; resources, Ł.R.; data curation, W.B. and K.M.; writing—original draft preparation, W.B., G.B. and Ł.R.; writing—review and editing, Ł.R.; visualization, P.S.; supervision, T.A.; project administration, P.S.; funding acquisition, W.B. and K.M. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research received no external funding.

**Institutional Review Board Statement:** The study was conducted according to the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by the Ethics Committee of Regional Medical Board in Krakow (approval No. 287/KBL/OIL/2020).

**Informed Consent Statement:** Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.

**Data Availability Statement:** The data presented in this study are available on request from the corresponding author.

**Acknowledgments:** A special thanks to all the members of the EJU Medical Commission, past and present, for all their efforts in collection all the data and Injury Registration Forms.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.

#### **References**

