Going to extremes
Passion drives Dr. Stephen Augustine to the track as a national leader in medical care for motorized extreme sports

By Stephen McKean
Photos provided by Dr. Stephen Augustine
 

Stephen Augustine, D.O. (’94), like many orthopedic surgeons, is a sports nut. He was a four-year football letterman at Denison University and a club lacrosse player at OU-COM. But his passion for the new wave of motorized extreme sports—motocross racing, BMX biking, and the whole range of high-speed, high flying feats epitomized by the X Games—sets him apart from his colleagues.

Augustine, who grew up racing motocross dirt bikes, says he began to notice an unsettling difference between how physicians treat action sports athletes compared to those in “stick and ball sports,” as he calls them. 

“If a high school kid is out riding his motocross bike—training really hard and racing—and he blows out his ACL, he’s [considered] an idiot,” says Augustine. “But a high school football player who blows out his ACL—he’s considered some kind of a hero. I think that dichotomy is ridiculous.” continue

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