Often associated with high performance, sports medicine is much more than simply supporting athletes: it questions our approach to preventing, diagnosing, and treating bodies in motion.

What is sports medicine?

Sports medicine is a branch of medicine that specifically deals with medical issues related to sports activities, in its preventive, diagnostic, and therapeutic dimensions.

It was in the 20th century that the discipline emerged as an autonomous field of medicine, with the birth of numerous medico-sports societies in Europe. These aim to ensure the health monitoring of athletes, reduce the risk of injury, and promote safer and healthier practices. Sports medicine is thus now recognized as a full medical specialty in over fifty countries.

However, the first traces of interest in the medical dimensions of sports practice date back to ancient Greece and Rome. The physician and philosopher Galen (129 – 201), for example, elaborated on Hippocrates’ criticisms of the disorders that athletes’ bodies can undergo and developed the first known description of occupational diseases.

In France, to become a sports medicine doctor, it is necessary to obtain a Complementary Specialized Studies Diploma, which takes two years after internship.

Sports medicine put to the test of gender

But this discipline is still marked by structural biases. The majority of scientific research used to establish sports medical recommendations is based on male data, without sufficient consideration of female hormonal or physiological specificities, which affects the medical monitoring of athletes.

While medicine is increasingly integrating the issue of gender, it remains necessary to address gender disparities in sports medicine, which is still largely male-dominated. Indeed, female practitioners would be more sensitive to these issues and would better take into account the female specificities of their patients[1]. They would therefore be in a position to evolve the discipline towards a more respectful and inclusive approach to athletes’ body and mind.

Marion Delespierre – Running, Healing, Winning

From childhood, she was driven by a dual attraction: swimming on one side, medicine on the other. Very early on, the desire to combine sports and health became evident. But the constraints of medical internship, with schedules often incompatible with those of municipal pools, pushed her to abandon the pool for trails. She traded pool tiles for rugged trail paths. What “was just an adjustment became a revelation: she quickly went from simple pleasure to competition, until” reaching the highest steps of the world podium.

To discover Marion Delespierre’s inspiring journey and understand how she balances her two vocations, listen to this podcast:

Written by Nastia and edited by Intan

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sports_medicine

https://theses.fr/2011PA040229

https://ffessm.fr/uploads/media/docs/0001/10/325ba8aa590ec10ff02b515b0b0de328888d2053.pdf

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8332153/

https://www.lesechos.fr/travailler-mieux/metiers-reconversion-professionnelle/medecin-du-sport-je-suis-aussi-championne-du-monde-de-trail-long-1983854

https://www.ramsaysante.fr/dr-marion-delespierre-medecin-du-sport-et-championne-du-monde-de-trail

[1] Lurie N, Slater J, McGovern P, Ekstrum J, Quam L, Margolis K. Preventive care for women. Does the sex of the physician matter?. N Engl J Med. 1993;329(7):478-482. doi:10.1056/NEJM199308123290707

[2] Lurie N, Slater J, McGovern P, Ekstrum J, Quam L, Margolis K. Preventive care for women. Does the sex of the physician matter?. N Engl J Med. 1993;329(7):478-482. doi:10.1056/NEJM199308123290707