IMU-Based Systems For Skiing Sports: A Scoping Review

Abstract

Inertial sensor (IMU)-based wearable systems are the most employed technology to acquire in-field information about athletic gesture in skiing sports since they are portable, easy to setup, not bulky and they are compliant with this sport’s extreme conditions, i.e. on-snow measurements, borderless working area. This scoping review wants to map the current scientific works on IMU-based wearable systems in the skiing contexts with the peculiarity of being used in the field: what type of information can be obtained, taking into account number and body position of the inertial sensors, whether other kind of sensors are involved and which type of data analyses techniques applied. A search on various databases identified 134 publications from 2013 to 2025, of which 39 met the inclusion criteria. Three main application areas emerged: 1) skier kinematics characterization, particularly the reconstruction of center of mass and joint trajectories; 2) classification tasks, such as automatic detection of skiing techniques, movement phases, and skier performance levels; and 3) injury prevention and rehabilitation monitoring, including applications in Paralympic skiing. While the reported findings are promising, research in this domain would benefit from deeper investigations, larger participant samples, and standardized protocols, to allow generalization and support the development of robust, field-deployable systems.