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3 Athletes Most at Risk for Athlete’s Foot

Despite the name, you don’t have to be a professional athlete to catch athlete’s foot. However, certain environments and sports make our patients at New Jersey Podiatric Physicians & Surgeons Group a bigger target for this notorious fungal infection. If your sport involves sweaty feet and shared floors (cough, pretty much all of them), here is a look at which athletes are most susceptible and why you might be at risk.

Swimmers

You might think that being in the water would keep your feet clean, but swimmers are at the top of the risk list. The issue isn’t the pool itself, but the surrounding areas. 

If you walk barefoot in these areas, you are walking directly over where hundreds of other people have stepped. Because your skin is often pruned or softened from the water, it is even easier for the fungus to find a microscopic crack and move in.

Wrestlers and Martial Artists

If your sport involves bare feet on a mat, you need to be extra cautious, especially wrestlers and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu athletes, who spend a lot of time in close contact with mats that trap heat and sweat.

While most gyms are diligent about cleaning, the constant friction and skin-to-skin contact make these athletes highly susceptible. If you are not scrubbing your feet immediately after practice, you are giving the fungus a head start.

Long-Distance Runners and Hikers

For runners, the enemy is the environment inside the shoe. When you are logging high mileage, your feet sweat significantly. And if you wear non-breathable socks or shoes that trap moisture, you are creating a greenhouse effect for fungus. The repetitive trauma of running can also cause small injuries to the toenails or skin, which can provide a perfect entry point for an infection to take hold.

How to Protect Your Feet from Athlete’s Foot

The good news is that being a high-risk athlete doesn’t mean you are destined to have itchy feet. You can significantly lower your chances of infection with a few simple habits. Wear shower shoes, dry between your toes, and:

  • Rotate Your Footwear: If you work out every day, try to have two pairs of athletic shoes. This allows each pair 24 hours to fully dry out before you wear them again.
  • Use Antifungal Powder: If you know you are a heavy sweater, a little bit of powder in your socks can keep the moisture levels down.

If you’re worried about your foot pain, come see the expert team at New Jersey Podiatric Physicians & Surgeons Group. With more than 30 locations, from Newark, NJ, to Cape May, NJ, we value convenience and excellent service for our patients. To schedule an appointment, first find a podiatrist in your area.