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in collaboration with
Dr Laurent Grange (Rheumatologist)
Medical validation:
February 16, 2023
Former figure skating champion Philippe Candeloro recently revealed that he suffered from osteoarthritis and had to have two hip prostheses.
Philippe Candeloro, a former figure skating champion, has been on the ice for nearly 42 years. Recently, the athlete confided to having been operated on twice at the level of the hips. The cause ? A very debilitating osteoarthritis.
Osteoarthritis in the hips
It is within the program “Chez Jordan”, broadcast on the C8 channel this Monday, February 13, that Philippe Candeloro confided in this recent operation.
“In two and a half years, I had two hip prostheses. One right, one left. There’s no more room for the 3rd, that’s what I told the doctor before he put me to sleep on the operating table! But joking aside, I had osteoarthritis in my hips. Forty-two years of practice, inevitably, it leaves traces“, he revealed to the host-tv.
If the athlete does not regret his sports career in any way, “excessively, sport still does damage“, he confided, before adding:
“They say you feel good when you play sports, it’s true because physiologically, in terms of cardio, if you have a trained heart, you’ll have a better chance of living longer. On the other hand, mechanically, as long as there is the muscle which is there, which reinforces all the joints which take shocks, that is fine. But when you get older… […] At some point, the body, at 50, it can’t react the same way as when it’s 20.”
And the least we can say is that Philippe Candeloro did not save himself: on the skates from the age of 8, he quickly shone at the 1994 Winter Olympics and those of 1998 in Nagano – where he obtained a bronze medal. He was also vice-world champion in 1994.
Subsequently, he will continue to chain Galas, shows, and even a comedy on ice, a mixture of theater and ballets, in 2012.
This talent, however, will not have prevented the actor from damaging his joints. And for good reason: these injuries are very common among top athletes:
“The younger high-level sport is practiced, the more it will promote osteoarthritis. This activity will increase the traumatology in the articular sense of the term. For example, we know that some athletes, such as footballers, marathon runners or even tennis players are at greater risk of coxarthrosis (hip osteoarthritis). It is the duration of practice that promotes this condition“, warns Dr. Grange, rheumatologist. “The jumps on the ice, made by Philippe Candeloro throughout his career, did not help matters either..”
If aging is the first factor in the development of osteoarthritis, sport also plays an important role. Reason enough to adopt good reflexes on a daily basis:
“Overall, it is recommended to have good equipment, such as good shoes. Then, you must be well monitored by a sports doctor and avoid certain risky gestures or postures“, concludes the expert.