**1. The primary care sports and exercise medicine physician: overview, characteristics, and particularities**

In the past, sports medicine has been understood of as a medical field solely related to the elite, professional, or Olympic competitive athletes and not accessible for the regular person. Lately, sports medicine has grown from a special interest area in healthcare to an established profession in the medical career [1, 2].

Currently, sports medicine might be defined as the medical specialty concerned with the care and well-being of athletes and those engaged in physical activity, working as a health manager providing a comprehensive management plan to optimize health and performance for the athletes and to develop healthy lifestyles by counseling on physical activity and exercise within the healthcare system [1–4].

The specialty as a primary care field encompasses many different disciplines and areas of expertise, such as internal medicine, family medicine, orthopedics, exercise science, cardiology, neurology, pediatrics, and emergency medicine. Sports medicine physicians, with their focus on sports and exercise medicine, are uniquely trained to provide such expertise to patients and medical colleagues [3, 5].

As consultants, they can be of great help in evaluating and treating active patients by efficiently connecting the different medical fields. Primary care sports medicine physicians can facilitate early diagnosis and management, thus accelerating recovery and avoiding long-term disability, providing adequate management, and eliminating the need for further consultation.

Patients can be seen quickly and cost-effectively. Therefore, sports doctors can reduce long waiting lists, solve the shortage of other specialists, and reduce the rising costs of healthcare. There is clearly an important role for the knowledge of sports medicine in the integral care of patients [1, 6].

However, the specialist physician in sports medicine is not always well understood by fellow doctors, health workers, team managers, and politicians. It is very challenging to change the current paradigms based on existing diseases in the health systems and the beliefs of the population, where the pharmaceutical industry has significant financial and political influence.

A consistent, sustained, and coordinated effort by the wider medical community, aligned with a bold political vision to change health systems and society's culture to promote and support physical activity, is a crucial requirement.
