Risk management framework for competitive alpine skiing — co-developed with stakeholders

Bonell Monsonís, Oriol (author), Supej, Matej (author)

Previous research has shown that stakeholders in the competitive alpine skiing communities consider risk management to be crucial in sports injury prevention. However, to date, there is a lack of a publicly available systematic and structured risk management approach for the competitive alpine skiing context. This work describes the codevelopment process of a risk management framework with stakeholders in the field of competitive alpine skiing. A panel of international experts invited through personal requests and with expertise in health protection and performance enhancement in competitive alpine skiing convened three times through online group meetings to codevelop a risk management framework through different activities. The underlying discussions focused on the fundamental questions of ‘why’, ‘what’, ‘who’, ‘how’ and ‘for whom’ and included the debate on specific examples from sports practice. The outcome after three meetings was a risk management framework. This framework includes a competitive alpine skiing-specific prevention wheel that integrates different stakeholder views relevant to different levels, their risk priorities, the main five domains and intervention areas identified from the literature, the graded and progressive timescale to intervene and the potential targets for risk management interventions. Moreover, the framework includes a decision-making tree, which operationalises the prevention wheel into a step-by-step sequence for risk management, including risk identification, risk assessment and risk mitigation. It should help stakeholders recognise their responsibilities and the potential actions they can take. Practical examples are provided to demonstrate how to apply the framework and to illustrate the complexity and dynamic interaction of the various factors in the competitive alpine skiing setting. The risk management framework developed lays a strong foundation for creating a safer environment for alpine skiers. It likewise contributes to providing overall awareness of the complexity and inter-relations of risks and prevention measures in the sport. By doing so, this framework has the potential to initiate further processes and on-field translation to sustainably and long-term improve athlete health and safety in competitive alpine skiing.

• Language: English
• Keywords: sport, risk management, competitive alpine skiing
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FŠ - Faculty of Sport
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: 15 str.
• Numbering: Vol. 11, iss. 3, art. e002507
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-179887
• UDC: 796.926
• ISSN on article: 2055-7647
• DOI: 10.1136/bmjsem-2025-002507
• COBISS.SI-ID: 251158275
• Publication date in RUL: 26.02.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: BMJ open sport & exercise medicine
• Publisher: BMJ Publishing Group, British Association of Sport and Exercise Medicine
• ISSN: 2055-7647
• COBISS.SI-ID: 525259033

Licences

• License: CC BY-NC 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
• Description: A creative commons license that bans commercial use, but the users don’t have to license their derivative works on the same terms.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: šport, alpsko smučanje, tekmovalni šport, športne poškodbe, obvladovanje tveganj

Projects

• Funder: Government of Andorra
• Funding programme: Predoctoral grant
• Project number: ATC028 - AND

• Funder: FIS - International Ski and Snowboard Federation
• Name: Athlete Health Protection