Football World Cup in KSA focuses attention on sports medicine
More than 60 experts from 15 countries around the world gather in Riyadh for major global conference
Saudi Arabia hosting the football World Cup in 2034 is focusing attention in the Kingdom on the importance of sports medicine, experts told Arab News on Thursday as a major global conference on the subject began in Riyadh.
More than 60 speakers from 15 countries around the world are taking part in the European College of Sports and Exercise Physicians forum in the Saudi capital. The event is being supervised by the MOVE Center for Comprehensive Sports Medicine, the first facility in the Kingdom that focuses on diagnosing, treating, rehabiliyears, tating, educating and protecting athletes from sports injuries.
“One of our main goals at MOVE is medical prevention,” the center’s chief executive Dr. Mubarak
Al-Mutawa said. “A quality life consists of good nutrition and staying active because those factors prevent chronic conditions, such as diabetes and high blood pressure.” Nikos Malliaropoulos, the organizing college’s secretary-general and a sports consultant, told Arab News that constant learning was the most important part of working in sports medicine.
“It is starting to expand all over the world and I am really happy that we are here today in Saudi Arabia, opening the doors to sports exercise medicine,” he said. “I think it is important as Saudi Arabia will host the World Cup in 10 years. So, over the next 10 this knowledge needs to be expanded to all healthcare professionals. This course changed my life and my practice 20 years ago. It was the motivation and the drive to develop that.”
The conference continues for the next three days.