Play It Safe: Avoiding Sports Injuries

Guest Bio: Michael F. Bergeron, PhD, FACSM

Michael F. Bergeron, Ph.D., FACSM, is the Executive Director of the Sanford Sports Science Institute and the National Youth Sports Health & Safety Institute, as well as a Professor in the Department of Pediatrics, Sanford School of Medicine of the University of South Dakota at the Sanford USD Medical Center. He also has an appointment as a Senior Scientist in Sanford Children's Health Research Center. Internationally recognized for his research and leadership in exercise-heat stress and youth athletic health, Dr. Bergeron is a Fellow and past Trustee of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), and recently completed his four-year term as a member of the National Federation of State High School Associations Sports Medicine Advisory Committee. He is also a member of the Medical Advisory Committee for Pop Warner and the Academic Advisory Board for the International Olympic Committee postgraduate Diploma Program in Sports Medicine. Dr. Bergeron serves as an Editorial Board member for the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism and Journal of Athletic Training. He also serves as a clinical and scientific consultant to the WTA (Women's Tennis Association) professional tour medical services.

Dr. Bergeron has worked with numerous youth, collegiate, and professional athletes on appropriately and safely enhancing athletic capacity and resilience by providing individualized and sport-specific training and nutrition/hydration guidance, with a particular emphasis on preparation, competition, and recovery strategies in the heat and helping athletes to avoid exertional heat illness and injury. Because of his recognized expertise and reputation among athletes, coaches and sport and sports medicine governing bodies, Dr. Bergeron has been regularly featured on myriad national television and radio shows, as well as in numerous online and print media and publications.

Dr. Bergeron's current research is focused on thermo-regulatory and other physiological and autonomic characteristics associated with mild traumatic brain injury and recovery. The institute is also examining the effects of exercise in the heat and thermal strain on neuromuscular control and injury risk.