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The Importance
of Sports Medicine
At the college and professional level, sports are big business.
Fans want to see the best athletes competing in every contest.
The athletes train hard to excel at their sport and prepare
their bodies for the rigors of competition. But accidents and
injuries can take an athlete off the playing field. That’s when
athletic trainers and a variety of other highly skilled medical
professionals step in. They help the injured athletes recover and
return to their sport at the same level of performance they had
achieved before.
Sports medicine is the general term that includes jobs and
careers that help athletes prepare themselves for their sports and
help themhealwhen they’re injured. Athletic trainers areprobably
the sports medicine professionals that most sports fans know,
since trainers come on the field to assist athletes during a game.
But behind the scenes, athletes also rely on physical therapists
(PTs), doctors, and surgeons to take care of their injuries.
In most cases, these health experts work together as a team.
After the athletic trainer makes the on-the-field
assessment
,
a doctor steps in to examine the injury and decide the treatment
plan. Depending on the injury, the doctor might send the injured
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Health Careers in Sports