Sports medicine healthcare providers have special training to help injured people get moving again as soon as possible. They are experts in preventing illness and injury in active people.

Sports medicine healthcare providers do work with professional athletes. But they also treat children and teens involved in sports and adults who exercise for personal fitness.

They also treat people who have physically demanding jobs, like construction workers.

Sports medicine is not a medical specialty itself. Most sports medicine healthcare providers are certified in other specialties.

These can be internal medicine or emergency medicine. They can also be family medicine, or another specialty.

Then they get more training. Other providers specialize in treating injuries in children and teens.

Their growing bodies can be quite different from those of adults. These specialists are usually board-certified in pediatrics or family medicine and also have training in sports medicine.

Some sports medicine providers have surgical training., The training is usually as orthopedic surgeons.