Sports Injuries and Care Provided by the Physiotherapy Service of the Brazilian Olympic Committee (BOC) during the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic Summer Games.

The study only includes athletes referred to the central Olympic Village physiotherapy team; those treated by their sport's own confederation physiotherapists (such as football and cycling) were excluded, so the data does not represent the entire delegation's care. Data was extracted from paper forms filled out by clinicians, which the authors admit may contain recording errors. As a descriptive cross-sectional study, it reports what treatments were used but cannot evaluate whether those treatments were effective or superior to other options. The high referral rate (90.7%) may reflect a lower threshold for seeking care at a major event rather than actual injury severity.

The study was approved by the Brazilian Olympic Committee (BOC). The authors state no specific commercial conflicts of interest, but the data comes from the BOC's own service, which they describe and evaluate.

Do not interpret the high usage of manual therapy and electrotherapy as evidence that these techniques are more effective than exercise or other interventions. This study describes what therapists chose to do in a short-term, acute setting, not what worked best for long-term recovery.