Sports medicine is a field built around performance, teamwork and helping people return to the activities they love. Yet the professionals providing that care do not always reflect the athletes and communities they serve.
As professional, collegiate and youth sports become increasingly diverse, there is a growing need for physicians, athletic trainers, physical therapists, psychologists, nutritionists and other sports medicine professionals from a wider range of racial, ethnic, gender and socioeconomic backgrounds.
Greater diversity in sports medicine is not simply about representation. It can help strengthen relationships between athletes and their health care providers, expand access to the profession and bring different perspectives to the care of increasingly diverse athletes.
The Numbers Show a Significant Gap
The lack of diversity is particularly evident among physicians working in professional sports.
A 2021 study examining head team physicians and athletic trainers across five major U.S. professional sports leagues found that minorities represented only 15.5% of head team physicians. Women represented just 3.9% of head team physicians and 1.3% of head athletic trainers. The majority of head team physicians were orthopedic surgeons.
More recent research continues to show the disparity.
A 2025 study examining NBA and MLB team physicians found significant differences between the racial makeup of players and their physicians. The study also found that although 30.7% of MLB players were Hispanic or Latino, only 11.6% of MLB team physicians spoke Spanish. More than half of MLB organizations did not have a team physician who spoke Spanish.
The gap is also apparent in women’s professional sports. A 2026 study of WNBA and National Women’s Soccer League team physicians found substantial racial and gender differences between athletes and the physicians caring for them. In the WNBA, 69.1% of players were Black compared with 28.2% of physicians. Only five of the 39 WNBA physicians identified in the study were Black women. In the NWSL, no Black women were identified among the 51 team physicians studied.
These numbers highlight an important question: How can sports medicine better reflect the athletes it serves?
Representation Can Build Trust
For athletes, health care is deeply personal. Team physicians and other medical professionals may be involved in everything from injury treatment and rehabilitation to mental health, nutrition and decisions about when an athlete can safely return to competition.
Having providers who understand different cultural experiences and perspectives can help create stronger relationships between athletes and their medical teams.
Dr. Lisa Barkley, Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Charles R. Drew University, has emphasized the importance of physicians understanding the social context surrounding their patients.
In discussing the NFL’s diversity initiative, Barkley explained that having sports medicine providers who can relate to the athletes they serve can help improve athletes’ health and well-being.
The issue is not that patients can only receive excellent care from someone who shares their background. Rather, diversity can provide additional perspectives, experiences and communication styles that strengthen a multidisciplinary health care team.
Research supports the importance of this relationship. Studies of professional sports have found substantial race discordance between athletes and team physicians and have suggested that greater physician representation may help reduce barriers between patients and providers.
The Importance of Seeing Someone Who Looks Like You
For many future physicians, exposure can make a significant difference.
Kelsey Henderson, who participated in the NFL’s Diversity in Sports Medicine Pipeline Initiative as a medical student, described how seeing Black orthopedic surgeons early in her medical education influenced her perspective on the specialty.
She recalled having minority orthopedic surgeons visit her medical school and demonstrate what they did in their daily practice. That experience helped make orthopedic surgery feel more accessible and attainable.
Henderson’s experience illustrates why mentorship and early exposure are so important.
If medical students rarely see people who look like them working as team physicians or orthopedic surgeons, they may never consider sports medicine a realistic career option.
Conversely, seeing physicians from diverse backgrounds working at the highest levels of sports can send a powerful message: There is a place for you here.
Creating More Pathways Into Sports Medicine
Increasing diversity requires more than simply encouraging students to apply to sports medicine programs. Students need opportunities to experience the field, meet mentors and develop professional relationships.
The NFL’s Diversity in Sports Medicine Pipeline Initiative is one example.
The program was created to give medical students from historically underrepresented backgrounds direct exposure to professional sports medicine. Students participate in clinical experiences with NFL teams and work alongside physicians, athletic trainers and other members of the medical staff.
Dr. Allen Sills, the NFL’s Chief Medical Officer, described the initiative as an effort to address the diversity challenges facing sports medicine. He emphasized the importance of both exposure and mentorship for students considering careers in the field.
The initiative has also given participants an opportunity to see that sports medicine encompasses far more than orthopedic surgery.
Modern sports medicine is a multidisciplinary field that includes primary care, orthopedics, physical therapy, athletic training, behavioral health, nutrition, strength and conditioning, rehabilitation and other specialties.
That broader understanding is important because there are many ways to build a career in sports medicine.
Changing the Pipeline
A lack of diversity cannot be solved at the point of hiring alone.
The pipeline begins much earlier.
Medical schools, residency programs, fellowship programs, professional organizations and sports organizations can all play a role by:
- Introducing students to sports medicine earlier in their education
- Expanding mentorship opportunities for students from underrepresented backgrounds
- Creating meaningful clinical experiences with diverse sports medicine professionals
- Increasing access to research and leadership opportunities
- Developing formal pathways into orthopedic and primary care sports medicine
- Supporting women and underrepresented physicians as they move into leadership positions
- Recruiting from a broader range of medical schools and training programs
- Expanding awareness of the many careers available within sports medicine
Research examining racially minoritized sports medicine practitioners in elite sports has identified representation, network-based hiring and workplace culture as important barriers. The researchers concluded that improving representation will require organizational and institutional changes, rather than relying solely on individual efforts.
That distinction matters.
It is not enough to tell students from underrepresented backgrounds that they should consider sports medicine. The profession must also create pathways that make those careers accessible.
A More Diverse Future for Sports Medicine
Sports medicine has made progress, but the numbers demonstrate that there is still significant work to do.
The American Medical Society for Sports Medicine states that it values “diversity” as part of its commitment to communication, collaboration and teamwork and emphasizes building relationships with patients and communities.
Professional organizations and sports leagues are beginning to recognize that commitment must translate into action.
The NFL’s pipeline initiative is one example of how exposure, mentorship and partnerships can help create opportunities for future physicians. Research in orthopedic sports medicine has similarly called for targeted, multifaceted approaches that include awareness, education, mentorship and leadership development.
The need is clear.
Athletes are diverse. Their medical teams should be able to reflect that diversity.
Creating a more inclusive sports medicine workforce will take sustained investment from medical schools, professional organizations, health systems, sports leagues and individual physicians. But the potential benefits extend well beyond representation. A stronger pipeline can help produce a profession that understands more perspectives, builds stronger relationships with patients and reaches communities that have historically had fewer opportunities to access specialized care.
The future of sports medicine should be one where talented students from every background can see themselves on the sidelines, in the training room, in the clinic, in the operating room and in leadership.
Diversity is not simply about who gets the opportunity to practice sports medicine. It is also about building a health care system that is better equipped to care for every athlete.