Whenever I see the word "epidemic" in a media story, my skepticism synapses begin firing uncontrollably. (If you're wondering why, see, e.g., here, here, here, and here.)

I had the same reaction this weekend reading Sokolove's article on injuries in women's sports, first noted Thursday by Steve, discussed this afternoon by Helen.

The article is filled with plenty of heart-wrenching anecdotes and hand-wringing quotes from worried parents (both staples of the epidemic reporting genre), but it's pretty thin on anything resembling statistics. And to the extent there are statistics -- like 0.25 per 1000 -- they don't sound anything like an epidemic.

Injuries are a problem in all sports, and certain types of injuries are more common in women's sports. We should do what we can to reduce them. But sensationalism, while useful for selling newspapers and books, isn't a helpful response.

For further disassembling, see Jezebel.