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 02.16.10 by Michelle Look, MD

I am a Board certified Family Practice-Sports Medicine physician and part of the US Olympic International Medical Staff. This is a volunteer position that doctors with Sports Medicine training and experience can apply for. Like our athletes, becoming a physician for the Olympic Games is the culmination of years of training and experience. Olympic physicians start with volunteering for two weeks at an Olympic training facility taking care of resident athletes and team training camps. 

A limited number of these physicians are selected by feedback from the US Olympic Sports Performance staff, coaches, and the athletes themselves and can work their way up through National competitions, world championships, world games, Pan American games, Paralympics and then, finally, the Olympics. For myself, after initially serving as a physician at the Chula Vista Olympic Training Center, I served as the US Olympic team physician for several national games, then in Thailand in 2007 for the World Games with the Women's Softball team and in Beijing and Hong Kong in 2008 for the Paralympics with the ParaEquestrian, Wheelchair Fencing and Paracycling teams.

My role as a team physician for the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver is to take care of the medical concerns of our US Olympic Team athletes and staff. We will be taking 215 athletes and 150 staff to the Vancouver Games. Besides medical illness and injuries, one of the essential roles we play is also to oversee any drug testing that is performed, should our athlete be selected for testing, to ensure the process is done in a fair and legitimate way.  At these games, I will be serving as the Lead Physician for the Whistler High Performance Center. This is a center located outside of the Olympic village in Whistler for our athletes in Alpine Ski, Boblsled, Luge, Skeleton, Cross country, Nordic Combine, Ski Jump and Biathlon. At the High Performance Center, we will have an exercise physiologist, sports psychologist, video technician, massage therapist, outside coaches, athletic trainer, chiropractors and physicians for consulting and caring for athletes during the games. The goal of the High Performance Center is to recreate our athlete's training atmosphere as closely as possible and give them every advantage to perform at their best. Winter sports are very technical and even a slight upper respiratory infection or jetlag can be the difference between one of our athletes winning a medal or not.  I am honored to represent our country and contribute to the success of our US athletes while at the same time reaching a pinnacle in the practice of sports medicine.

SEE ALSO:

Michelle Look: A Sad Day (02/12/10)

Michelle Look: Life as a Speedskater (02/13/10)