Whether you practice a sport on a regular basis or if you are fond of these activities, even if only occasionally -on a trip or on vacation-, you need to know what advantages, situations and assistance are protected by an insurance for athletes and why it is not It is advisable to stay with non-specific insurance.

Sport is a recommended practice for many different reasons, but it is also a common exception in non-sports policies. Health insurance, life insurance… it is easy to exclude the practice of a sport-especially if it is risky – as a covered situation for any of its contingencies, be it a simple fall, a small injury or a more important accident.

Sports insurance offers you specialties, treatments and exclusive services in this type of policy, such as sports and preventive medicine, physical therapy or specific check-ups with stress tests.

There is an important and numerous set of services that a person who regularly practices a sport needs and that only this type of insurance includes.

What is sports insurance?

Sports insurance has been born from a specific demand of today’s society: to cover the needs of an increasingly numerous citizen profile, people who practice sports as part of their leisure, on a more or less regular basis.

Cycling or running, but also activities such as diving or climbing have more and more followers every day who need to feel safe, while they enjoy their favorite activities and find an answer to their specific health needs. Sports insurance is the answer.

Insurance companies have designed specific products to meet the needs of both those who practice popular sports and those who opt for activities defined as risky; covering, in addition, from specific situations to a habitual practice.

How are sports insurance: main features

• They are specific insurances that cover their holders, while they do sports.
• They are valid only in sports venues and include exclusive and adapted services that you cannot find in general policies.
• There are policies for specific situations: a diving course, but also to cover a long-standing situation that forms part of the holder’s daily routine, such as going for a run or riding a bike.
• Medical assistance is the main coverage that includes all sports insurance, but not the only one. They are not just medical or health insurance.
• The offer is numerous and the flexibility in the policies allows you to choose the best insurance and adjust the premium to your specific needs.
• Sports medicine, but also preventive, physiotherapy, alternative treatments and specific tests can be found in this type of insurance.

What type of sports insurance is there?

You will not find insurance for athletes in all companies, nor all policies for all sports, although it is an insurance that is increasingly popular, given the number of people who love sports in any of its variants.

Sports insurance is increasingly popular and in demand. There are different types, modalities and degrees of coverage: you always have to hire the one that meets your specific needs to also get the best price.

Medical insurance

The most common thing is to find sports insurance classified within health or medical insurance, in fact, the advisers confirm that medical coverage is the most important within sports insurance and that it should be expected that it has many points in common with a complete traditional medical insurance and add the specialties that are related to the practice of any sports activity with sports and preventive medicine at the fore.

Travel insurance

If you are looking for insurance to cover possible contingencies, when you practice a risky or adventure sport, for example, during your vacations there is the possibility of subscribing it within the travel insurance you take out or a type of travel insurance.

In this case, health coverage is important, but it is not necessary for them to be as numerous as when it comes to insurance to cover the regular practice of sport and instead, other covered contingencies such as transfer or assistance outside the country of home.

Accident insurance

Different insurance companies offer personal accident policies and within them, sports are included that refer to a complete catalog of activities that are cataloged, according to the risk to offer an adjusted premium in each case.

Dance, golf, pool swimming, tennis, surfing, windsurfing, athletics, soccer, handball, trekking, cycling, horse riding, polo, rugby, triathlon, acrobatics, kayaking, wrestling, mountaineering, parachuting, paragliding, fishing, rafting and skiing Aquatic sports are the most common sports in the risk tables of insurance companies and for which it is possible to take out insurance.

What do I need to know to take out the best sports insurance?

The sport you practice, but also your age, your health, the regularity or the place where you do it is important when taking out insurance to cover your needs as an athlete.

Experts recommend that you take into account all the details to be correct when choosing the policy and that you do not waive.

• Look for all the offers and always compare on equal terms.
• Although there is a good number of sports insurance, there is not such a large demand as in the case of the most popular insurance such as home or car insurance.
• If you are going to do a specific activity such as a skydiving course or activities of this type classified as adventure or risk: pay attention to what the organizing company demands and what the course does or does not include. It is usual that, at least, the responsible company covers the event with civil liability insurance.
• If you practice team sports such as soccer or basketball, you have to differentiate coverages for training from possible competitions. In general, the spaces where sporting events are held have civil liability insurance and the organizers of meetings as well.
• Federated athletes have their own insurance, so if this is your case, you should check with the federation to which you belong to avoid duplicating benefits.

Coverage that must have an insurance for athletes

• Main coverages
• Health care at all levels from emergency to hospital and specialized.
• Complete and adapted medical examinations
• Physiotherapy services and similar therapies essential to recover or improve sports injuries
• Complementary treatments and alternative therapies
• Complementary coverage
• Total or temporary disability or death
• Attention inside and outside the national environment
• Preventive medical tests
• Nutrition and dietetics services
• Displacements
• Pharmacotherapy

Better insurance for athletes

AXA: with sports medicine

At AXA Salud they offer a Sports Medicine Unit in their specific reference centers and in their different health resources for insured athletes.

Consultations, complementary tests or therapeutic care related to the main needs of people who practice sports are among its proposals to include, according to the preferences, of the insurance holder and her needs.

As its own modality in AXA, it is committed to franchised wellness services for all its insured, which includes interesting services such as gyms, training sessions or physiotherapy. An interesting resource if you do not practice sports often, but occasionally you do or have suffered an injury in a fall, for example.

DKV: Sports runners

DKV insurer takes the needs of people who play sports very seriously and offers one of the most comprehensive and ever-growing sports insurance for sports medical specialties and related clinical trials. Prevention ranks high among its services.

DKV policies include many of the sports-specific health and medical services that exist today. They complete their digital and virtual health services

assists. The holders of these insurances enjoy consultations on nutrition, exercises or diets.

FIATC: experts in Physical Education and Sports Medicine

FIATC’s medical team stands out because for its sports clients it offers the specialty of Physical Education and Sports Medicine in several of its health policies. Only risky or competitive sports are excluded, but it is recommended if you are a runner, for example, or practice any sport on a regular basis.

Specialties and alternative therapies – such as osteopathy – related to the prevention or treatment of sports injuries also have space in FIATC policies that provide access, in accordance with the conditions signed by each client. In general, policyholders enjoy special prices and preferential access to this type of care.

Mapfre: sports accidents

Thinking of increasing your running hours? Before, a biomechanical study of gait will allow you to detect possible problems with your locomotor system and adjust intensity and time of exercise, for example. It is a test included among the coverages to which Mapfre Salud clients have access, among others, according to the characteristics chosen within their medical insurance.

Personal accident insurance is a specialty at Mapfre that also includes the AP sports modality, a type of insurance with coverage provided for professionals and amateurs that, in addition, can be contracted on a personal basis or as part of a group or team. The objective is not medical assistance, but the contingency of disability, even death during sports.

Sanitas: specialized medical centers

Diagnostic tests and medical check-ups are important for athletes, with Sanitas they are covered assistances, if you choose one of their health insurance from its more Premium range. The company has specialized medical centers where sports medicine care is complete and up-to-date so that the insured can perform all the necessary tests.

Muscle overloads, knee injuries, fasciitis… are pathologies that can arise when doing different sports, but with Sanitas coverage it is possible to treat and even prevent them, so many athletes choose their insurance to be able to access all the health services they need or they might need.

Whatever your profile as an athlete, it is possible to take out a concrete and specific insurance that frees you from problems and offers you assistance if you suffer an accident, but also if you have an injury that prevents you from going to work or incapacitates you temporarily or more to long term, when you are practicing your favorite sport.

Keep in mind that it is easy that your other insurances do not cover these types of scenarios, when they occur while playing sports.