Includes bibliographical references.

The aim of this study was to identify the possible risk factors for the development of lower limb musculoskeletal injuries in novice runners. The specific objectives of this study were: (a) to describe the demographic and training characteristics of novice runners; (b) to establish the incidence of self-reported running-related injuries in novice runners; (c) to determine if specific intrinsic factors, namely age, gender, body mass index, quadriceps angle, foot alignment, hamstring flexibility, balance, muscle power and a history of previous injury were risk factors for lower limb musculoskeletal injuries in novice runners; and (d) to determine if specific extrinsic factors, namely training frequency, session duration, and intensity were risk factors for developing lower limb musculoskeletal injuries in novice runners.

Background: Swimming is a popular competitive and recreational sport performed worldwide by all generations. Although swimming is associated with many positive health benefits, swimmers are at risk of developing musculoskeletal injuries. In particular, competitive swimmers may be at increased risk of injury, due to regular participation in demanding training regimes. Adolescent swimmers may be at increased risk of injury due to physiological and biological vulnerability associated with growth and development. However, there is a lack of evidence regarding the epidemiology of injuries in competitive adolescent swimmers. Aim: The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between injury incidence and potential risk factors in adolescent swimmers over a 24 - week period. Specific Objectives: (a) To describe the demographic and training characteristics of competitive adolescent swimmers; (b) to establish the incidence and nature of self - reported swimming - related injuries in competitive adolescent swimmers; (c) to determine if any specific intrinsic factors and extrinsic factors were associated with increased risk of injury in competitive adolescent swimmers. Methods: Twenty three competitive adolescent swimmers aged 12 to 18 years were recruited for the study. Swimmers attended a study information session and parents/legal guardians were emailed information sheets and informed consent forms. All participants brought signed informed consent forms from parents/legal guardians to the baseline data collection session. At baseline testing participants signed their own informed assent forms and completed the baseline questionnaire, anthropometry measurements, glenohumeral range of movement measurements, the Beighton score and glenohumeral and knee muscle strength measurements. Participants were advised on how to complete the electronic injury report and training questionnaire. A familiarisation trial - run of the survey was completed in the week following baseline testing. Formal data collection commenced two weeks after baseline testing. Participants were required to submit the injury report and training questionnaire on a weekly basis for the 24 - week study period. Results: The mean age for commencement of swimming training in both the injured and uninjured groups was approximately 7.5 years. The injured group had significantly decreased subscapularis muscle strength (p = 0.02) and significantly higher average training session distances (p = 0.04), compared to the uninjured group. Fourteen participants (60%) sustained injuries during the 24 - week study period. The injury rate was 22.4 per 1 000 athletic exposures (AE's). Sixty injuries were sustained in total; 16 were index, and 44 were recurrent injuries. The most common injury location was the knee joint (n = 20). The only factors associated with increased injury risk in this study were previous injury history (OR: 7.50; 95% CIs 1.02 - 55.00) and reduced percentage of time in breaststroke training (OR: 12.83; 95% C I s: 1.69 - 97.19). Few swimming training sessions were modified or changed due to injury, and the majority of injurie s did not receive any treatment. Conclusion The injury incidence of adolescent competitive swimmers attending a Johannesburg - based swim squad is high. In addition, the high number of recurrent injuries, the minimal adaptation of training loads in response to injury, and the low access to appropriate treatment suggest a lack of knowledge or poor practices regarding swimming - related injuries. Pre - season screening, specific to swimming, could assist in identifying weakness and potential risk factors for injury in this vulnerable age - group. Improving health literacy with education in swimmers, coaches and parents could reduce future injury incidence rates. Therefore, further research is needed regarding injury incidence, risk factors and training profiles of this population. Moreover, consensus regarding injury definitions and training loads in adolescent swimmers is needed to standardise reporting and to facilitate further research in this field.

Background: The association of psychological factors with athletic performance and proneness to injury and illness has been widely recognised as an integral part of athletic preparation, treatment and rehabilitation. The exact nature of this association is still not clear, but it can be hypothesised that better mental health leads to better performance, less injuries and illness and more rapid recovery. Psychological distress is a strong predictor of injury, illness and poor performance, but inherent personality traits have failed to show a constant association with these parameters. Advances in validated psychometric instruments of personality and resilience show promise in their application to further the understanding of the psyche in athletes. Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the predictive value of personality traits (novelty seeking, harm avoidance and reward dependence), resilience and general psychological distress in terms of injury, illness and performance in a group of triathletes competing in the 2007 lronman Triathlon. Methods: For this descriptive cross-sectional study, 166 entrants in the 2007 lronman Triathlon were recruited. Each subject completed a detailed, previously validated set of questionnaires during registration prior to the event. Contained in the questionnaire were sections on general demographic information, detailed previous and current medical conditions and injuries, and psychometric instruments (TPQ - a measure of personality, CD-RISC - a measure of resilience, K10). After the event, the official overall finishing times, as well as the split times for the swimming, cycling and running legs, were obtained from the race organisers. Results: Higher NS and RD scores were predictors for faster predicted performance times and higher psychological distress scores was a predictor for slower actual times (r=0.160, P=0.053) and particularly predicted slower cycling times (r=0.026, P=0.002). Higher K10 scores significantly predicted the presence of flu-like symptoms (P=0.019) and higher HA scores significantly predicted nervous system symptoms during exercise (P=0.035). Higher RD scores predicted the absence of nervous system symptoms (P=0.075). Higher K10 scores (P=0.093) and HA scores (P=0.070) were associated with medication use prior to and during the event. Higher resilience scores predicted the occurrence of exercise associated collapse (P=0.081) and absence of EAMC (P=0.075). Higher HA scores predicted GIT symptoms during exercise (P=0.091 ). Higher reward dependence predicted the presence of tendon / ligament injuries (P=0.039) and genital injuries were associated with lower resilience (P=0.098) and higher HA scores (P=0.065). Conclusion: Generally, the results showed only a few consistent findings in terms of identifying predictors, although interesting correlations and trends were observed. Studies on different athletic populations and on a larger scale are needed. Physicians should be aware of the cardinal importance of mental well-being, as this is as vital in the preventative and curative management of the injured, ill or poor performing athlete as optimal physical conditioning.

Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common degenerative joint disease. The impact loading on the articular cartilage of the large weight bearing joints (hip, knee, and ankle joints) during distance running might be a potential precipitating factor in OA. The aim of this case-control study was to investigate the relationship between total accumulated running volume and OA in the weightbearing joints. In this study, OA was defined as pain and/or stiffness and/or swelling in the weight-bearing and non-weight-bearing joints (wrists and fingers). The subjects for this study were selected from previous and current runners of the Two Oceans Ultra-marathon (56 km) in Cape Town (South Africa). The database (1356) consisted of all the runners who participated in this race between 1970 and 1983. From this data-base a random group of male runners (n =128) were divided into six 10-year age groups of runners (18 and 79 years). There was a random sample of 25 runners in five of these groups and three in the 70-79 year age group. Runners were age matched with a random sample of past pupils (n=204) of a school who were in their final year between 1923 and 1994. This was the control group. A questionnaire to diagnose OA was designed and validated with a sensitivity of 92% and a specificity of 71 %. The questionnaire was posted to the runners and controls. Incentive prizes were offered to improve the response rate, which was 59%. Completed information was obtained from 76 ultra-distance marathon runners (response rate 59%) and 114 controls (response rate 56%). In the control group there was a group who participated in running. This group was combined with the runners who were then divided into three groups according to their total running volume which was calculated by the following formula; years involved in running x months/year running x 4 x hours/week running. The subjects were thus divided into four groups: 1) controls (non-runners) (n=60), 2) low volume runners (n=43), 3) medium volume runners (n=43), and 4) high volume runners (n=44). Of these, 22 low volume runners, 7 medium runners, and 7 high volume runners stopped running. The prevalence (%) of OA in all groups was compared. The mean age of the control group was significantly higher than the three running groups. The mean height and weight of the medium volume group was significantly higher than the other groups. There was no significant difference in the BMI in each group. The frequency of professional and retired people was significantly higher in the control and each running group. A significantly greater percentage of controls had a history of admission to hospital. There were more controls on long-term medication, compared to runners. A significant number of injuries to the weight-bearing joints (specifically the knee joint) occurred in all groups, due to other sports (p =0.007). There were no significant differences in symptoms suggestive of OA in all groups when not adjusting for age and previous injuries. However, when assessing the odds ratio to determine the risk for OA in the weight-bearing joints, adjusting for age and previous injuries, the low volume group had the highest risk to develop OA (O.R. = 3.2, 95% C.I. = 1.0-10.3); the medium group had the second highest risk (O.R. = 1.7, 95% C.I. = 0.6- 4.8) and the high-volume group (O.R. = 1.1, 95% C.I. = 0.4-3.1) and control groups (O.R. = 1.0) had equally the lowest risk to develop OA. This study confirmed that distance running is unlikely to be a predisposing factor in the development of OA in the weight-bearing joints, even at high running volumes commonly seen in ultra-distance running.

Background: The Summer Paralympics have grown from participation of a mere 16 athletes at the 1948 Stoke-Mandeville Games, to a large multi-code event of 4176 athletes competing in 20 different sporting codes at the 2012 London Summer Paralympic Games. Unlike able-bodied athletes, Paralympic athletes represent a heterogenous group of people with a varied degree of physical-, mental- and physiological impairment. Despite the growth in the Paralympic sport, limited research exists describing injury and illness in Paralympic athletes. For athletes with impairment to perform optimally and not to jeopardise their health, studies should identify and eventually address risk factors for both injury and illness. Aim: The main aim of this study was to determine the incidence and nature of illnesses and injuries in a cohort of athletes with spinal cord injury (SCI) during the 3-day pre-competition and 11-day competition period at the 2012 London Summer Paralympic Games. This knowledge could provide an initial framework for future research regarding injury- and illness prevention strategies in athletes with SCI. Methods: This study was a component of the large prospective cohort study which was conducted over the 14-day period of the London 2012 Summer Paralympic Games, coordinated by the Medical Committee of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC). The data were collected at the London 2012 Summer Paralympic Games during the 3-day pre-competition and 11-day competition periods. Three data sources were used. Firstly, the IPC provided a comprehensive athlete database that contains accreditation number, country code, sports code (20 sports), gender and age. The second data source was the medical encounters of staff that provided care to their own teams. At the London 2012 Summer Paralympic Games, a novel system (WEB-IIS) was used to collect data via desktop computer interface, tablet or smart phone. The third data source was from an electronic medical data capture system (EMDCS) (ATOS, France) where the medical staff of the Local Organizing Committee of the London Summer Paralympic Games (LOCOG) were requested to enter all medical encounters, at both the Paralympic Village polyclinic and at the sports venues wherever the athlete reported for care. A standardized form was used for this purpose. After comparing all the data, a total of 3009 athletes, of which 709 were athletes with SCI formed part of this study. The Incidence Rate (IR) for illnesses and injuries in athletes with SCI was calculated as the number of illnesses and injuries per 1000 athlete days and was compared to a group of all other Paralympic athletes with injury and illness (who had other impairments). Results: There were significantly more upper limb injuries in athletes with SCI (p=0.0001), with an IR of 6.4 injuries / 1000 athlete days (95% CI 4.6 - 8.9). The IR for all the other athletes were 4.4 injuries / 1000 athlete days (95% CI 3.4 - 5.8). For lower limb injuries, the IR for athletes with SCI was significantly lower (p=0.0001) at 1.4 injuries / 1000 athlete days (95% CI 0.8 -2.5) compared to an average IR of 4.2 injuries / 1000 athlete days (95% CI 3.3-5.4) for all other athletes participating at the 2012 London Paralympic Games. Athletes with SCI had a significantly higher IR for illness than the group of all other athletes (p=0.0004). The IR for illness in athletes with SCI was 15.4 illnesses / 1000 athlete days (95% CI 11.8-20.1), whereas the average for all other athletes were 11.0 illnesses / 1000 athlete days (95% CI 8.7-14.1). The IR for skin- and genito-urinary illness were significantly greater in athletes with SCI (p=0.0001), with an IR of 3.9 illnesses / 1000 athlete days (95% CI 2.5-6.2) for skin illness and 2.3 /1000 athlete days (95% CI 1.8-4.6) for genito-urinary illness. The IR in skin illness for all other athletes were 1.8 illnesses / 1000 athlete days (95% CI 1.1-2.7) and genito-urinary illness, were 0.5 illnesses / 1000 athlete days (95% CI 0.3-0.8). Summary: The results of this study present an insight into injuries and illnesses in athletes with SCI. Athletes with SCI injury have a greater incidence rate of upper limb injuries and a lower incidence of lower limb injuries, than other Paralympic athletes. Total-, skin- and genito-urinary illnesses were also significantly greater in athletes with SCI compared to other Paralympic athletes. For clinicians caring for athletes with SCI, the results indicate that more attention should be given to the prevention of upper limb injuries and specifically skin- and genito-urinary illnesses.

The rising rate of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes in humans over the past two decades have been linked to increasing rates of obesity, aging and urbanisation. A similar pattern is occurring in domestic animals, specifically cats and dogs. Skeletal muscle is a vital organ in the regulation of blood glucose. Its composition in terms of muscle fibre type, metabolism and contractility can differ substantially between species, but is poorly studied in the domestic dog, in particular the various breeds. It was hypothesised that insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes may be associated with muscle fibre type, in particular, muscle with a low type I fibre content being a predisposing factor. Therefore, the aims of this study were to investigate the skeletal muscle fibre composition and metabolic profile in the Triceps brachii (TB) and Vastus lateralis (VL) of 16 breeds of domestic dogs (Canis lupus familiaris). A secondary aim was to correlate the skeletal muscle composition with breeds reported as having a high incidence of diabetes. Skeletal muscle samples were collected post mortem from the TB and VL of 38 dogs from different breeds, age and sex, and analysed for fibre type composition, fibre size, oxidative and glycolytic metabolic capacity (citrate synthase (CS), 3-hydroxyacetyl co A dehydrogenase (3-HAD), creatine kinase (CK) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) enzyme activities). There was no significant difference between the TB and VL in any of the measurements. Type IIA was the predominant fibre type for both muscle groups (TB: 43%; VL: 44%) followed by type I (TB: 33%; VL: 38%) and type IIX (TB: 24%; VL: 18%). The cross sectional area (CSA) of the fibres were all smaller compared to humans and other wild animals. Surprisingly, there was no difference in the CSA between the fibres types and muscle groups: Type I: TB: 1740 µm2 ; VL: 1712 µm2 , Type IIA: TB: 1690 µm2 ; VL: 1720 µm2 , Type IIX TB: 1726 µm2 ; VL: 1791 µm2 ). Metabolically, the muscle of the dog displayed a high oxidative capacity with high activities (all activities in µmol/min/g protein) for CS (TB: 61; VL: 49) and 3-HAD (TB: 53; VL: 46). Lower CK (TB: 6115; VL: 6279) and higher LDH (TB: 1550; VL: 1478) activities than humans indicated a lower and higher flux through the high energy phosphate and glycolytic pathway, respectively. These results indicate that the dog has a predominance of type IIA fibres along with a higher oxidative capacity. There appears to be no pattern in fibre type profile that could be associated with a predisposition of a specific breed to insulin resistance and diabetes, although many of the breeds with a known risk did not form part of the study sample. This is the first study to characterise the skeletal muscle composition of a large population of dogs (16 breeds), but the association of breed to diabetes was not found. Future studies should include younger and more animals, as well as a diabetic population of dogs.

Internships are an integral part of the job-training regimen for college students in the United States today. The prevalence of internships in higher education and the U.S. economy is often justified by the compelling idea that internships provide mutual value to universities, students, and employers (Becker, 1962; Coco, 2000). The internship system, however, has become the subject of litigation in court, politicized as a regime of wage theft, and critiqued for its contribution to the widening gulf between rich and poor in the United States (Perlin, 2011b). It is within this context that internships have become a core component of the academic field of sport management. Sport management has used internships as a preparatory practice since its inception in the late 1960s. Founded on the idea of training a managerial class of workers for the sports industry, sport management has grown from one program in 1966 to over 400 today. Sport management scholars argue that such growth comes from 1) the burgeoning sports industry’s demand for a trained workforce and 2) from the more and more students who want to enroll in the degree programs (Chelladurai, 2017; Masteralexis, Barr, & Hums, 2011). Despite the effective demand amongst students and the labor demand from the industry, scholars are describing the labor market as over-saturated and highly competitive (DeLuca & Braunstein-Minkove, 2016). The major consequences are an uncertain job market and suboptimal labor conditions for interns and graduates. This dissertation examines the political economy of internships within and between sport management and the sports industry and explores in this context the labor power, or productive subjectivities, of sport management majors going through the internship process. I performed in-depth semi-structured to unstructured interviews with 33 sport management majors who were at three different points in the internship process (before, during, and after). The interviews were conducted to understand the production of motivations and capacities to work in sport (or the demand for sport management); the experience of being entangled in labor market competition; the expectations for, and experiences of, interning; and the formative, and ongoing, role that sport (fandom and athletic participation) plays in the lives and labor of interns jockeying for positions in the sports industry. In my analysis, I discuss the ways in which my respondents became subjects of social reproduction between sport and capitalism and subjected to affective conditions of exploitation. I provide a critique of dominant internship orthodoxy, the function of internships in the sports industry, and the active role sport management plays in reproducing conditions of exploitation. And I illustrate how the contradictions of internships under capital give rise to passion, love, hope, and optimism as irrational yet core characteristics of the sport management workforce. After having fleshed out myriad issues with internships, I conclude with a discussion about what we can do about internships in sport management to improve the labor conditions for future interns. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Sport Management in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester 2018. / June 11, 2018. / fandom, internships, labor, political economy, sports industry / Includes bibliographical references. / Joshua I. Newman, Professor Directing Dissertation; Jennifer Proffitt, University Representative; Michael D. Giardina, Committee Member; Hanhan Xue, Committee Member.

Dynamic pricing has become one of the most popular pricing strategies of developed online shopping environments and provides efficiency for both providers and consumers in the service industry. Spectator sport providers have recently adopted dynamic ticket pricing (DTP), which is a type of dynamic pricing and discriminated prices, as a result of DTP, may lead to perceptions of unfairness, especially during the early stages of its adoption. The aim of the current research was to develop a conceptual framework based on relevant consumer psychology theories, including distributive and procedural justice, equity, and social comparison theories, in order to empirically investigate the formation and influence of perceptions of price fairness. Four categories of questions corresponding to a given scenario were employed via a questionnaire to collect data: predictors of price fairness, perceptions of price fairness, behavioral intentions, and demographic sections. Participants who define themselves as current or potential sports consumers were selected using a convenient sampling method in a face-to-face mode. After verifying the items using exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and structural equation modeling (SEM) was performed to examine: (1) the influence of predictors of price fairness (i.e., magnitude and temporal proximity price difference, perceived nonmonetary sacrifice, and price setter fairness) on perceptions of price fairness; (2) differences in degrees of influence on perceptions of price fairness between the two groups of price fairness predictors (i.e., similar other-reference and self-reference group) depending on comparison targets; and (3) the influence of perceptions of price fairness on behavioral intentions. Using SEM the hypotheses were tested. First, magnitude of price difference was strongly and negatively associated with perception of price fairness, while temporal proximity positively influence the fairness perception. Also, price setter fairness was positively consistent with perception of price fairness. Furthermore, it was found that created perception of price fairness was negatively correlated with self-protection and revenge intentions, although the fairness perception positively effects repurchase intentions. The current research was expected to contribute to the soft landing of DTP in the spectator sport industry by providing critical information of factors determining price fairness judgment, and the effects of perceptions of price fairness on behavioral intentions for better understanding of DTP for both researchers and practitioners. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Sport Management in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. / Summer Semester, 2014. / July 1, 2014. / Dynamic Pricing, Dynamic Ticket Pricing, Perceptions of Price Fairness, Price Fairness / Includes bibliographical references. / Yu Kyoum Kim, Professor Directing Thesis; Jeffrey James, Committee Member; Ryan Rodenberg, Committee Member.

ABSTRACT Since the year 2000, the number of golfers in the United States has steadily declined (National Golf Foundations, 2013). Coupled with an oversupply of golf courses and a sluggish real estate market, this drop has contributed to a cessation in domestic golf course development. This same failed model that incorporates golf courses as amenities to sell real estate is being reproduced in developing countries searching for an economic panacea. Golf courses are being developed in emerging nations for the primary purpose of financial reward, with minimal regard for environmental or social sustainability (Wheeler & Nauright, 2006). The public is often led to believe that golf course development will create employment opportunities for the community, bring boundless fiscal returns in the form of tax revenues and increased tourism, and attract additional small businesses to the region (Lim & Patterson, 2008). During my visits to Panama, I saw the beginnings of this unsustainable practice of golf course development being touted as an economic cure-all, all possible because of President Martinelli's free-market policies encouraging foreign development through free-trade agreements, relocation tax incentives, and limited restrictions on foreign capital. Panama is an emerging country. Under current President Martinelli's tenure, Panama's poverty rate dropped from 33% to 26%, its unemployment rate declined from 12% to 4.4%, its literacy rate is 95%, while its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) index to debt ratio is 39.2% (Central Intelligence Agency, 2013). The country is currently expanding the Panama Canal (more than doubling its earning capacity), building a metro system in the capital city, and constructing an airport in the country's interior to provide tourists with convenient access to the new beachfront golf resorts and housing projects developed over the past ten years. The Club de Panama hosts the Buy.com Tour's first golf event of the season, positioning Panama as the golf xiv mecca of Central America. The political environment is primed for golf course development in Panama, foreign investors are being incentivized to relocate, and American golf companies have already established their presence. As I examined the economic, environmental, and social sustainability of golf course development in Panama and its effects on key stakeholders, the information I gathered via ethnography strongly points towards the Panamanian government's neo-liberal initiatives as a significant contributor to the growth of golf course development. Additionally, the results of the study lead me to the conclusion that stakeholders affected by golf course development do not benefit or suffer equally, as suggested by Orridge (1981) and Marsden (1995). The current U.S. model of utilizing golf courses as an amenity to sell real estate is not sustainable; in fact, none of the ownership models discussed in the literature are in themselves sufficient to ensure equal benefit to all primary stakeholders. In summary, golf continues to be a sport synonymous with capitalist societies; however, without the introduction of a more balanced alternative to golf course development and operations, many key stakeholders in Panama may be at risk should these facilities fail to provide their investors an adequate profit. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Sport Management in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester, 2014. / June 17, 2014. / Golf, Panama, Political Economy, Sustainability / Includes bibliographical references. / Michael D. Giardina, Professor Directing Dissertation; Gerald R. Ferris, University Representative; Jeffrey D. James, Committee Member; Joshua I. Newman, Committee Member.