"Haglund" - Heel problem due to tight shoes

Beatrice Colli, 16, from Italy won two Euro Cups in 2019. Later in 2020, she started to get pain in both her heels and she started to climb with larger, adjusted shoes with no pressure on the heel. Things were going quite well until she participated in the last Italian Cup where she used normal tight shoes and after many heel hooks, the problem got worse again. In this video, Bea and her trainer Fabio Palma talks about the problem.

Bea suffers from the Haglund deformity, which is caused by too much tension on the heel and creates inflammation and sometimes bone enlargement. If so, surgery is needed. Every time you jump down or make hard heel hooks, you are at risk. Climbing big overhangs mean less pressure on the heel while boulder dynos or even Speed climbing cause more pressure, assuming you are using the same shoes.

One month ago, I wrote an article talking about how to reduce the tension on the heels in kids' climbing shoes. By asking around, it now seems the Haglund deformity is a common problem, especially among younger climbers. Björn "Dr 8a" Alber will follow up with a longer article.