The 'physician-athlete' and the development of sports medicine as a 'very peculiar practice'

Drawing upon historical studies of the development of sports medicine in several countries and recent sociological studies of the practice of sports medicine, this paper focuses on the development of the concept of the physician-athlete, that is the idea that sports physicians should themselves be (or have been) athletes. It is suggested that this played an important part in the early development of sports medicine in integrating into a fledgling profession what was a highly diverse group of practitioners who had nothing in common other than a love for sport. It is further suggested that the expectation that sports physicians should themselves be, or have been, athletes - or that they will at the very least have a passion for sport - has become an important part of the occupational culture of sports medicine and that this provides an important clue to understanding medicine as a 'very peculiar practice'