A History of British Sports Medicine

A comprehensive history of the development of British sports medicine as a medical specialism, and of the changing biomedical understanding of the athlete - from normal healthy man, to supernormal hero or even physiological freak - from 1880 to the early twenty-first century.

This book offers a comprehensive study, and social history, of the development of sports medicine in Britain, as practiced by British doctors and on British athletes in national and international settings. It takes as its focus the changing medical concept of the 'athletic body'. Athletes start the century as normal, healthy citizens, and end up as potentially unhealthy physiological 'freaks', while the general public are increasingly urged to do more exercise and play more sports. It also considers the origins and history of all the major institutions and organisations of British sports medicine, and shows how they interacted with and influenced international sports medicine and sporting events.

As well as being an important read for anyone interested in 'body history', this volume will be essential reading for those studying or researching the history of modern medicine, sports, or twentieth century Britain more generally.