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As a physician who treats members of Virginia Tech’s athletics teams in Blacksburg, Va., Matthew Chung, D.O., combines his dual passions for medicine and sports. The West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine (91�㽶��Ƶ) Class of 2015 alumnus grew up participating in nearly every organized sport imaginable, eventually settling on tennis, golf and rowing as his “big three” during high school and college.

Today, he’s a sports medicine specialist who provides sideline coverage for Virginia Tech’s football and women’s lacrosse teams and cares for the university’s tennis and women’s swimming and diving teams. He also teaches as an assistant professor at the Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine (VCOM) and sees patients at his practice at VCOM Sports and Osteopathic Medicine.

Born in Queens and raised in Yonkers and Goshen, N.Y., Chung developed an interest in medicine at any early age, thanks to textbooks his father, a dentist, kept around the house.

“My dad had gross anatomy books, and as a kid I would open them and look at pictures of real cadavers. It fascinated me even before it was age-appropriate for me to be studying it,” he said. “I didn’t want to do dentistry because the mouth seemed small and claustrophobic, but as I got older I enjoyed the sciences — especially biology — and from doing service-based activities in church and youth groups, I realized giving was more satisfying than receiving. Then my grandparents were diagnosed with terminal cancer and I was in awe of the physicians who cared for them, so it was a combination of experiences that led me to pursue medicine.”

After graduating from the State University of New York at Geneseo with a biology degree, Chung began applying to osteopathic medical schools. He chose 91�㽶��Ƶ after visiting campus and interacting with local residents of the school’s home base of Lewisburg, W.Va.

“The 91�㽶��Ƶ campus was beautiful, and everybody was welcoming. The admissions staff and the faculty I met during my interview were genuinely interested in who I was. Even the cashier in Walmart spent five minutes talking with me. The anatomy facility also sold me on 91�㽶��Ƶ — the ventilation system, windows, tables and the way the curriculum was set up so that we could do a complete dissection. You can’t put a price on that,” he said.

While at 91�㽶��Ƶ, Chung joined the Sports Medicine Club and the Emergency Medicine Club. Expecting to specialize in the latter, he became the club’s vice president and accepted a publications committee seat for its associated national organization, the American College of Osteopathic Emergency Physicians. It was during a third-year emergency medicine rotation that he realized it wasn’t the right fit.

“I remember the physician saying, ‘Go take care of this person in Room 1,’ and thinking, ‘What decisions have I made that brought me to this moment where I’m standing here trying to take care of this patient?’ And I realized that my good day could be somebody’s worst day,” Chung said. The chaos of the trauma bay, along with the long hours and unpredictability, left him searching for something else.

His decision to pursue sports medicine solidified during his fourth year at 91�㽶��Ƶ when he encountered a mentor in the sports medicine field.

“The chief resident at Greenbrier Valley Medical Center was in the process of applying to sports medicine fellowships, and she introduced me to the idea of sports medicine. Getting to work with athletes, dealing with musculoskeletal injuries and performing cool procedures sounded like exactly what I wanted to do,” he said.

During a family medicine residency at Greenbrier Valley, Chung gained experience providing medical coverage at sporting events such as the PGA Greenbrier Classic and the NFL-sanctioned Spring League in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va. Following his residency, he was selected to continue training at the VCOM/Hospital Corporation of America Primary Care Sports Medicine Fellowship at Virginia Tech. He relocated to Cooperstown, N.Y., to spend three years working with an orthopedic practice, but ultimately returned to VCOM, where he has practiced since 2022.

Chung, who has a wife and children, said his work requires a high level of personal and family sacrifice.

“It’s fun to stand on the sidelines and watch games, but two or three hours before kickoff, you’re at the school getting things prepared and taking care of the athletes,” he said. “Then you’re usually there for an hour to an hour and a half after the game. So it’s a six- or seven-hour commitment that you’re spending away from your family on a weekend.” 

Still, he finds immense satisfaction in helping team members recover from injuries or other conditions that might prevent them from performing at their highest level — or from playing at all.

“You develop relationships with these athletes. And we see a lot of them when they’re at a low, dealing with an injury. Seeing them come away from that to go back and be successful is gratifying, especially when you see how passionate they are. There’s nothing like being able to help them through that process,” Chung said.

He recalls one incident in particular that made him aware of the power of sports medicine to keep athletes doing what they love.

“During my fellowship, there was an athlete who was riding their bike and fell,” he said. “It looked like the kickstand had punctured their thigh, and the wound was about a millimeter from their femoral artery, which could have been limb-threatening. This is somebody who was essentially an Olympic-level athlete. Doing weekly ultrasound-guided aspiration of seromas where the needle was close to the femoral vessels, and ultimately being able to get them back, was an experience that will always stay with me.”

And of course, the appreciation shown by team members whose health he’s responsible for keeps Chung motivated to perform at his own highest level.

“I got a card yesterday from an athlete saying, ‘Dear Dr. Chung, thank you for everything. Your support doesn’t go unnoticed, and we all appreciate it more than we may say. We can’t wait for the spring season. We hope to make you proud.’ Things like that are what drives me.”