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

All told, Augustine devotes more than 40 weekends a year to on-site medical service for “extreme” sports athletes, including professional and amateur motocross and supercross, as well as non-motorized sports such as skateboarding. Although he mostly serves east of the Mississippi, Augustine frequently travels west to help out at major professional events.

In the long term, Augustine would like to extend the reach of his foundation beyond the Southeastern U.S., where it has had so much early success. He would also like to see more general research on action sports athletes, in the same way that traditional athletes have been studied for decades.

Perhaps most importantly, Augustine hopes to break down negative stereotypes in the medical community surrounding action sports athletes. “Doctors in general just blow them off because they don’t understand them,” he says.

But Augustine, who still occasionally races in enduro, motocross and harescramble events, most certainly does. “When you race motocross,” he says, “it’s like hitting a home run ten times in one game.”

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