In this short opinion article we hope to bring attention to what we believe is one of the failings of the educational system in the United States and a potential threat to national and international athletic performance by U.S. athletes. This failure concerns the decreased emphasis on sports and sports-science activities within the university educational system and elsewhere. Conclusion As sports continue to evolve, sports science should also evolve to ensure that athletes are training in the most intelligent, safe, and progressive ways. This will require competent and experienced sports scientists. These sports scientists must be training somewhere - presently, sports-science training does not occur on a systematic basis in the United States. Although we do not believe for a second that the work involving exercise and disease is valueless—in fact, it is quite the opposite—we do believe that neglecting sports science will ultimately result in increased rates of injury, unpredictable and unstable sports performances, and poorer competitive standings for U.S. athletes in the world.
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