Background: With increasing sports medicine content on social media, we sought to identify the top sports medicine influencers on X (formerly Twitter) and analyse their common characteristics.
Methods: X influence scores for "Sports Medicine" were collected in November 2021 from Right Relevance. Accounts were then screened in a blind, duplicate manner for personal and X profile characteristics.
Results: Physical therapists/physiotherapists made up 48% of the top sports science and medicine influencers. Locations in the U.S. and U.K. were listed for half of the influencers. The mean h-index was 30.2 (95% CI = [24.8-35.6]) with a median of 22.0 (range = 1-101). Most individuals reported multiple practice settings (63%), with 60% associated with an academic setting. Professional (62%) and Olympic (49%) level athletics were most frequently mentioned, with soccer (48%) and rugby (30%) as the most common sports. Among 76 profiles with URLs, most were linked to personal websites (57.9%).
Conclusion: The top influencers on X consisted of accredited sports science and medicine professionals across various locations and occupations, providing ample networking and collaboration opportunities. The relatively high h-index in this study suggests sports science and medicine influencers on X are notable contributors to academic literature.
Keywords: Exercise science; influential; social media; sports science.