Author(s): SCHULZ, W., Institution: WORCESTER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE, Country: UNITED STATES, Abstract-ID: 2552

INTRODUCTION:
The objective of this project is to provide video resources for research into ACL injuries, as well as be a place to learn and discuss about ACL injuries. The project is important because in the United States, 175,000 ACL surgeries are performed each year, costing an estimated US$2 billion dollars (Yu and Garrett 2007). A large amount of that cost is shouldered by female athletes, studies point to women being 2-8 times more likely to suffer an ACL injury than men playing the same sport (Yu and Garrett 2007). Research into ACL injuries using videos has been done before. A study conducted in 2024 (Achenbach et al. 2024) analyzed 37 injury videos from professional women’s soccer in Germany. Other similar studies have also been conducted, however most focused on men’s sports, with some looking at co-ed data sets. The research papers that have used video analysis do not leave a place for their video samples to be easily accessed, limiting the possibility for follow up research. Achenbach et al. (2024), mentioned a limitation mentioned was the quality of videos sourced, and lack of footage from other levels of soccer in Germany.
METHODS:
The methodology used to find and archive videos changed multiple times throughout the course of the project, with each method adapting to the realities of women’s sports broadcasting and journalism. There were multiple different manual search methods used to find videos. Firstly, WNBA and NWSL teams Twitter profiles were scrubbed for the terms “ACL” and “Knee” using the search function. When searching for videos using the players found from Twitter, two YouTube accounts dedicated to women’s basketball were found that had a large collection of WNBA and WCBB footage. A Twitter account that focused on logging every professional women’s soccer player that had suffered an ACL injury was found, and their data was used to compile a list of in-game ACL injuries to find footage of.
RESULTS:
The project found 75 videos of ACL injuries across 5 different sports, mainly Basketball and Soccer. Of the 75 videos, 51 were of women. The injury mechanisms observed in the videos are consistent with the literature.
CONCLUSION:
The project determined that the low quality of women’s sports footage online made research into ACL injuries difficult. This is despite the higher amount of ACL injuries among women compared to men. The project also found that top women’s sports leagues providing more video resources would make future research easier. More social media awareness could also make crowd sourcing hard to find videos more effective.