The epidemiology of illness and injury at the alpine venues during the Salt Lake City 2002 Winter Olympic Games.

The Emergency Medicine literature has described levels of medical care for mass gatherings in the United States, including for the Los Angeles 1984 Summer and Calgary 1988 Winter Olympic Games. However, there are limited data to describe the type and number of illness or injury that may occur during mass gatherings in an alpine winter environment. To describe the epidemiology of illness and injury seen among spectators at the alpine and snowboarding venues during the Salt Lake City 2002 Winter Olympic Games, we conducted a retrospective review of the Salt Lake City 2002 Olympic Medical Care database for all patient encounters during the operational period of the Games at the alpine and snowboarding venues.