Sports injury in Australia

Cycling can be a sport, a recreation activity, or a mode of transport. For hospitalisations, information is recorded separately about the cause of the injury – which could be a cycling transport accident – and the activity being undertaken at the time of the injury – which could be cycling as a sport, a sport other than cycling, or a non-sport activity.

In this report, cycling sports injury hospitalisations include:

• a recorded activity of cycling as a sport, and the cause of injury was a cycling transport accident
• a recorded activity of cycling as a sport, but the cause of injury was not a cycling transport accident.

Hospitalisations where a recorded activity of a sport other than cycling, and the cause of injury was a cycling transport accident, are also included in this report as sports injury hospitalisations, but attributed to the recorded sport (which is not cycling).

Hospitalisations that had a cause of injury of a cycling transport accident, but the activity was non-sport (such as leisure, working, or other specified activity) are not included in this report. More information on other cycling-related hospitalisations, see Injury in Australia.

An estimated 2.1 million Australians aged 15 and over cycled in 2024–25 (ASC 2025). During this same period, there were 13,100 cycling injury hospitalisations in 2024–25, of which around 7,200 were identified as cycling for sport (BMX, mountain biking, road cycling, and track and velodrome): about 6,000 males and 1,200 females. The highest number of injury hospitalisations from cycling for sport was among those aged 10–14 (around 1,400 cases), while the 0–4 age group had the lowest number of hospitalisations (110 cases) (Figure 14).

For more detail, see data table 5 and technical notes.

Trends over the past decade

From 2017–18 to 2024–25, the number of hospitalisations ranged from 4,800 to 8,000 for males and 1,100 to 1,800 for females (see Figure 15). Between 2017–18 to 2018–19, injury hospitalisation rates were relatively stable for both sexes. Hospitalisations were lowest for males (41 hospitalisations per 100,000 population) during that period.

For more detail, see data table 6.

From 2019–20 to 2021–22, there was a spike in injury hospitalisations – a likely effect of the COVID-19 pandemic. Hospitalisation rates were highest in 2020–21 for males (65 hospitalisations per 100,000 population) and females (14 hospitalisations per 100,000 population).

Across 2022–23 and 2024–25, injury hospitalisation rates appeared to have stabilised for males (an average of 47 hospitalisations per 100,000 population) and females (an average of 9.2 hospitalisations per 100,000 population).

Cycling categories

In 2024–25:

• Over one third of cycling injury hospitalisations were from mountain cycling (Figure 16), with a rate of 14 hospitalisation per 100,000 for males (1,900 hospitalisations) and 1.7 per 100,000 for females (240 hospitalisations)
• Track and velodrome cycling had the fewest injury hospitalisations with 40 hospitalisations (0.2 per 100,000 population)
• Over half of recorded cycling injury hospitalisations were not specified further (4,100 injury hospitalisations or 15 per 100,000 population).

For more detail, see data table 5.

Nature of injuries

For injury hospitalisations from cycling for sport in 2024–25, the top three most injured body parts across all ages were:

• shoulder and upper limb, excluding wrist and hand (2,500 cases)
• head and neck (nearly 1,500 cases)
• trunk (1,300 cases) (Figure 17).

For more detail, see data table 13.

Fractures accounted for more than half of all injury hospitalisations (or 4,100 cases), followed by open wounds (14% of injury hospitalisations or 960 cases) and intracranial injuries (6.6% of injury hospitalisations or 480 cases). About 69% of these intracranial injury hospitalisations were concussions: around 285 males and 48 females.

The top three common causes of injury hospitalisations from cycling for sport in 2024–25 were:

• transport (6,700 cases or 24 hospitalisations per 100,000 population)
• contact with objects (e.g. being struck by objects such as a wall) (200 cases or 0.7 hospitalisations per 100,000 population)
• falls (135 cases or 0.5 hospitalisations per 100,000 population).