A Day in the Life of a Team USA Chiropractor in the Olympic Village
In 2016, I had the honor of serving Team USA at the Rio Olympic Games. It was a period of long hours, excitement, and hard work, making it truly an experience of a lifetime. I’m going to pull back the curtain and give you some insight into what it’s really like inside the Olympic Village. Below, I’ll highlight an average day and what it was like to work in one of the most dynamic environments I’ve ever experienced.
Our schedules were quite full as we were there to win and to provide as much support as we could to Team USA athletes. Our home base in Brazil was in the Olympic village and Team USA had an entire building, unlike the smaller nations. I worked with track and field, and we occupied a large area in our building because we had such a large number of athletes. The clinic typically opened at about 8:00 a.m. and closed around 10:00 p.m. However, these hours varied once competition started. We arrived at the village 8 days prior to the start of competition to acclimate. As a chiropractor, I was one of three chiropractors there. Our responsibility was to care for USA Track and Field athletes at three locations: 1. Olympic Village Team USA building, 2. The Brazilian Naval Academy, and 3. Olympic Stadium. Here is an example of a typical day prior to competition:
6:00 a.m.
Wake up, shower (sometimes), and head down to the medical room downstairs. If I was scheduled for morning practice at the Naval Academy, wake-up time was 30 minutes earlier.
6:30 a.m.
Help pack coolers, prepare snacks (PB&J was a favorite), water, and sports drinks for athletes in 2-3 coolers. After packing the coolers, it was about a 15-minute walk to the bus. In addition, I had to bring my portable table and supplies, as did the other therapists. We typically had 2-3 therapists available at each location. From the Olympic Village in Rio to the Naval Academy, the bus ride was about 45 minutes away during rush hour. Once there, we’d set up for the day. Massage and chiropractic tables and our tools for the trade were all we had. A typical treatment would involve chiropractic adjustments, stretching, and soft tissue work right before they would go for their warm up. Typically, we would treat sprinters, throwers, and middle distance athletes. Usually, there would be a morning practice starting at 9:00 a.m. and going until noon, and then we’d break for lunch. The afternoon training group would come around 2:00 p.m., and we would leave around 5:00 p.m.
12:00 p.m.
Lunch. I’ll provide more about lunch later, but lunch was provided at the Village and the Naval Academy. Team USA brought in chefs to the Naval Academy who helped us with meals similar to what we had at home.
1:00 p.m.
Back to work with an afternoon training session or get on the bus and head back to the Village.
6:00 p.m.
We would unload all of the coolers, clean and organize supplies for the next day. After returning, I would take a quick dinner break and then head back to the medical room. There we would treat any track athlete that needed a tune-up for the evening. Around 10:00 p.m., we’d begin to close down and clean up around the room, then call it a night. Bedtime for me prior to competition was around midnight.
This was a typical day/night for the first 10 days until competition began. Once the competition started, we would be split between training facilities and competition facilities.
The Start of Competition
This is the time we were all waiting for. The competition schedule is typically 10-12 days with morning sessions for prelims and evenings for finals. The schedule had some adjustments as now, instead of going to a practice track, some medical groups and athletes would go to the warm-up track and Olympic Stadium. Wake-up time would be 5:30 a.m., shower, head downstairs, pack the coolers, eat breakfast if there was time, carry the tables and coolers to the bus, and set up at the stadium for the morning session. The trip on the bus was about 1 hour through Rio traffic. The treatments we provided were standard: Active Release Technique, massage/soft tissue work, adjustments, and anything else athletes needed to prep for the session. We were stationed in two tents at the warm-up track next to the stadium as we had the largest squad with 125 athletes. They had a large screen broadcasting the event so that we could watch, since we had athletes we were treating and couldn’t go into the stadium. The morning sessions ended around 1:00 p.m., and we would pack up and head back to the Village.
Evening Sessions
Evening sessions would begin around 8:00-9:00 p.m. since the time in Brazil was 1 hour ahead of US EST. We typically needed to prep the coolers again (more PB&Js) and be there about 2 hours prior, which meant we left the Village at 5:00 p.m. Arriving at the stadium, we’d prepare athletes with adjustments, ART, stretching, etc. Once it was showtime, they were off. The most intense periods were at arrival before their warm-up. There were multiple events in the evening sessions, typically semifinals and finals. Team USA typically had the most athletes in the events, so we would hustle and treat everybody before their warm-ups began. Once everybody was treated, we could either watch on the TVs by the practice track or go inside the stadium and watch.
Once competition was finished, we still needed to be at the stadium. Some athletes wanted a post-race treatment and wouldn’t return for a couple of hours after the race. So, if the race finished at 11:00 p.m. Brazil time, they wouldn’t be back until 1:00 a.m. in some cases, as they had to do drug testing and media in the mixed zone.
1:30-2:00 a.m.
Return to the Village and bedtime. However, we had ice baths at the village and some athletes wanted a plunge after the events. I remember one time a 400m runner had an ice bath at 2:00 am to prepare for the race the next day. We also had to unpack unused drinks and snacks from the day, go upstairs to the rooms, shower, and go to bed. The next day would come, usually around 5:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m. Rinse and repeat. Drink coffee when you can.
That year, Team USA won 32 medals with some memorable performances. Usain Bolt was dominant with wins in the 100m and 200m. USA women’s 110m hurdlers swept the field. The hours were long, but the experience will forever be ingrained in my memories as an experience of a lifetime. I wouldn’t trade it for the world!