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The Importance of Sports Medicine

At the college and professional levels, 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

10 C areers O ff the F ield • Health Careers in Sports