ABSTRACT
Sports medicine's heritage might be traced back in one form or another to ancient Greece. This chapter begins with a brief statement concerning methodology. It identifies and subscribes to a plausible defining goal of medicine taken from a recognized authority in the field. The chapter discusses two representative, authoritative, definitions of sports medicine. It shows that acceptance of the definitions of sports medicine generates a problem in that if they are accepted, no necessary commitment to the defining goal of medicine is present within sports medicine. It seems to follow that sports medicine is not medicine. The chapter discusses the 'class inclusion claim'; specifically the claim that sports medicine belongs within the class of medicine. The definition of the British Medical Association (BMA) differs from another definition, which says that it is a branch of medicine concerned with the welfare of athletes, and deals with the science and medical treatment of those involved in sports and physical activities.
