EDITOR'S NOTE: CAFP member Michelle Look, MD is in Vancouver as a member of the US Olympic International Medical Staff and is providing a first-person perspective of the Winter Olympics as well as her duties.

Posted on 02.12.10 by Michelle Look, MD  

It is with a sad heart that I write to you today. Our high performance center team watched on all of our live feeds as a Georgian luger hit the bank on the final turn and flew out of the track and into a steel beam. VANOC emergency team was on him within a few seconds and we watched as they started CPR almost immediately, but were unable to resuscitate him. All morning we had watched crashes, three of our US team crashed in preliminary runs and the world champion from Italy the gold medal favorite crashed as well. There have been several articles about the speed of the course and the lack of access to the course that outside countries have had. I am sure these questions will be raised again. The track is closed and they are looking at whether changes should be made. Our team says that they can slow the ice by changing the temperature or start the men from a lower start ,but it is unclear whether they will do anything at all.

We have had many injuries already,on the eve of Opening ceremonies. Many of these sports are at such high speeds and high intensity, when these athletes fall they are propelled like in a motor vehicle accident. If you saw Stacey Cook's fall yesterday, it is amazing she is walking, although she still doesn't remember the crash. The ski course is lined with a type of elastic netting supported by plastic poles. You can see them giving way as she flies into them like a trapeze, but it does absorb some of the force of the fall. She was going 60mph and 20 ft in the air. Amazing. We have had many head concussions (we use the IMPACT testing), contusions, and lots of very sore athletes. Like our NFL athletes they sit submerged in icebaths like it was a jacuzzi.

At the High performance center we are seeing a variety of athletes but mostly US Ski both Nordic and Alpine. Our team is often looking at things to shave hundreds of a second.For example, our team takes snow samples several times a day to measure the water content of the ice. Based on these measurements our team, in particular all of the nordic sports, determines the tread that will be used on  the skis. Like a tire, the more water in the ice, the more tread needed on the ski's. The harder and drier the snow, the less tread. The exact alignment of the crisscross grid placed on the skis is determined by Muk, a German expert hired by US Ski. Muk then drives the ski's down to Vancouver and uses this million dollar diamond cutting machine set to his measurements for the pattern of tread. Even knowing what to look for I could barely discern the pattern up close. I have attached pictures of Muk and the machine. While most XC skiers change their skis once a season, if the weather changes he may decide to change all of the ski's four times in the next two weeks.

We have a variety of equipment for our athletes, everything from a pilates reformer, a wheelbarrel(which Bode Miller pushed until he vomited), to a 1,500 pound argatron that we forklifted into a shed next to the starting gate of Alpine. Our skiers will do a couple of sets of eccentric leg presses seconds before doing their ski run. These elite athletes have interesting training routines and our job is to try to accommodate them and sometimes their entourage. Daily we are called by "doctors" from all over the country telling us how they can fix our athletes. It is all a little surreal.

We hope the medical news from the games and the weather improves. Tonight we are all invited to the USA House to watch opening ceremonies in Vancouver. Women's US Ski has decided to make an appearance at Opening ceremony as well as Vice President Biden and surprisingly Gov. Schwartzenager.

Go figure?