50 years for the Netherlands Association of Sports Medicine (VSG) and counting!

On 8th May 1965, a small group of pioneers founded the Netherlands Association of Sports Medicine (VSG) in Amsterdam. As we celebrate our 50-year anniversary, our blossoming professional organisation has almost 150 sports medicine specialists and 250 other doctors with an interest in sports medicine. Sports and exercise medicine has developed into a specialty that encompasses prevention, treatment and rehabilitation, with performance enhancement at any level.1 It is a very broad field, and the sports medicine physician is a facilitator, connecting all the professionals who are involved in supporting the athlete: physiotherapists, nutritionists, exercise physiologists, psychologists, orthopaedic surgeons, cardiologists, etc. The curriculum of the sports medicine trainee contains fellowships in all these areas, and the sports medicine doctor is therefore well equipped to coordinate the care delivered by the various specialists and advise the athlete. Their role is to ensure healthy performance of the elite athlete at one end of the spectrum, and the health and safety of patients with any medical condition that may profit from exercise, at the other end of the spectrum. The breadth of the …