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Sports Medicine Physicians vs Athletic Trainers

Side-by-side · O*NET · BLS · AI-exposure research · Anthropic Economic Index

A factual, source-backed comparison of Sports Medicine Physicians and Athletic Trainers on the dimensions both occupations carry. Every figure is a position within an independent published dataset — not a verdict on which job is better, safer, or more “future-proof.”

Sports Medicine Physicians Athletic Trainers
Median pay · BLS OEWS
—
$60,250
Employment · BLS OEWS
315,360
28,950
AI exposure (percentile) · task overlap, not automation
35th pct
34th pct

At a glance

Dimension Sports Medicine Physicians Athletic Trainers
Median pay — $60,250
Employment 315,360 28,950
Employment outlook (2024–34) · BLS projection About average (+2.5%) Growing fast (+11.1%)
Annual openings · BLS projection 9,600 2,400
Typical education · O*NET Most of these occupations require graduate school. For example, they may require a master's degree, and some require a Ph.D., M.D., or J.D. (law degree). Most of these occupations require graduate school. For example, they may require a master's degree, and some require a Ph.D., M.D., or J.D. (law degree).
AI exposure · published exposure studies Moderate · 35th pct Moderate · 34th pct
Global GenAI gradient · ILO ISCO-08 · via crosswalk — 45th pct · 25% of tasks
Observed AI use · Anthropic Economic Index — Augmentation-leaning (56.4%)
Mostly remote-capable · Dingel–Neiman — Yes

Pay and employment are BLS OEWS estimates; outlook and openings are BLS 2024–2034 projections; AI exposure and observed-use figures come from separate research and reflect exposure and usage, not predictions that either job will disappear. Compare like with like.

Skills

Shared: Medicine and Dentistry, Reading Comprehension, Oral Comprehension, Problem Sensitivity, Active Listening, Written Comprehension, Oral Expression, Critical Thinking, Inductive Reasoning, Biology, Monitoring, Judgment and Decision Making, Written Expression, Deductive Reasoning, English Language, Speaking, Speech Clarity, Active Learning, Social Perceptiveness, Complex Problem Solving, Writing, Instructing, Service Orientation, Time Management, Near Vision, Speech Recognition, Learning Strategies, Coordination, Information Ordering, Customer and Personal Service, Fluency of Ideas, Originality, Flexibility of Closure, Administration and Management, Education and Training.

Specific to Sports Medicine Physicians

  • Systems Evaluation
  • Persuasion
  • Category Flexibility
  • Systems Analysis
  • Science

Specific to Athletic Trainers

  • Psychology
  • Therapy and Counseling
  • Public Safety and Security
  • Administrative
  • Multilimb Coordination

Knowledge, skills & abilities O*NET rates as important for each occupation. “Shared” are common to both; the columns list what is distinctive to each (top by the order O*NET surfaces).

Tools & technology

Shared: Medical software , Spreadsheet software , Office suite software , Word processing software , Electronic mail software , Internet browser software .

Specific to Sports Medicine Physicians

Specific to Athletic Trainers

Full profiles

This page is a summary. See the complete source-backed profile for Sports Medicine Physicians or Athletic Trainers — tasks, the full skill graph, tools, work context, preparation, wages by percentile, industries, AI exposure and the AI work map.

More comparisons

Related occupations you can place side by side on the same sourced scale.

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

Cite this page
Plain

Singulariki. "Sports Medicine Physicians vs Athletic Trainers." Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Built from O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); Microsoft “Working with AI” working-with-ai; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130; AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans; ILO / Gmyrek et al. GenAI exposure gradient 2025; IBS O*NET-SOC ↔ ISCO-08 occupation crosswalk 2022; Frey & Osborne (2013) frey-osborne-automation; Dingel & Neiman (2020) dingel-neiman-workathome. Accessed June 7, 2026. https://singulariki.com/compare/sports-medicine-physicians-vs-athletic-trainers

APA

Singulariki. (2026). Sports Medicine Physicians vs Athletic Trainers. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/compare/sports-medicine-physicians-vs-athletic-trainers

BibTeX 
@misc{singulariki-sports-medicine-physicians-vs-athletic-trainers,
  title  = {Sports Medicine Physicians vs Athletic Trainers},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); Microsoft “Working with AI” working-with-ai; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130; AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans; ILO / Gmyrek et al. GenAI exposure gradient 2025; IBS O*NET-SOC ↔ ISCO-08 occupation crosswalk 2022; Frey & Osborne (2013) frey-osborne-automation; Dingel & Neiman (2020) dingel-neiman-workathome. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/compare/sports-medicine-physicians-vs-athletic-trainers}
}

Citations name the underlying public dataset releases — they reflect what this page is built from, not just the URL.