Sports, Medicine, and the Emergence of Sports Medicine in the Olympic Games: The Canadian Example

Prior to the late 1960s, Canadian Olympic teams did not consistently include a physician or a health care team. The thirty-six medical personnel accompanying Canada’s 265 athletes at the 2004 Olympics games in Athens represent the growth of the sports medicine field in both Canada and at the Olympic games. This paper chronicles and analyzes the changing composition of the Canadian Olympic teams between 1932 and 2004. From 1968 on, the Canadian Olympic roster began to include numerous medical personnel in order to use sport science and medical science to develop higher-calibre athletes, win more medals, and remain competitive with the elite sporting nations of the world. However, the services provided by a nation’s health care team at the Olympic games often duplicate the services offered by the host city, provide competitive advantages to the athletes who use them, and, ultimately, introduce additional inequalities into the Olympic Movement.