Do You Have What It Takes to Be a Doctor at the Olympics?

Mark Hutchinson, MD, was at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio when an athlete on the US rowing team came into the medical area. Hutchinson, an orthopedic surgeon and head team physician at the University of Illinois Chicago, recalls the young man looking a little sheepish. But when Hutchinson promised to help with anything at all, he held up his hand.

“I thought maybe he had injured his wrist,” Hutchinson says. Nope. “He had a medical band around his wrist, which was broken. He explained to me that he had just had a baby boy. That was the dad’s band. But it had broken.”

An essential item Hutchinson always keeps in his medical bag: Duct tape. So, he got to work, carefully repairing the band so it was secure. “I have pictures of that athlete competing and qualifying for the medal rounds,” Hutchinson says. “He is out in the water rowing, and you can see that duct tape bracelet on his arm because that was his motivation to compete.”

This memory is one of many that Hutchinson cherishes from his years with the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) sports medicine volunteer program. His journey began in 1996 at the Atlanta Olympic Games and will continue in Paris.

For Hutchinson and other physician volunteers, moments like this symbolize what they feel is the spirit of their role: To support Olympic athletes in any capacity, large or small, medical or nonmedical, so they can perform their very best.

Do you dream of flying around the world with Team USA? Did we mention the work is entirely unpaid? Do you have the drive, the determination, and the pure love of competition to be an Olympic volunteer? If so, you just might make the team.

How Do You Get to the Olympic Village (Besides Practice)?

Hutchinson’s approach has always focused on three simple ideas: “Look for opportunities. Make some of your own. Be willing to serve, not self-serving.”

Hutchinson had just started his practice when he embarked on the first idea. He discovered that the regional US rhythmic gymnastics team was training near his home in Chicago. So, he showed up at an open house. No introduction. Just a CV in his back pocket.

Luckily, Hutchinson ran into the team psychologist who also happened to work at the University of Illinois Chicago. “Doc, what are you doing here?” she asked. He replied, “I’m just seeing how I can help.” It was the beginning of a 30-year relationship with USA Rhythmic and Artistic Gymnastics. The team brought him first to regional and national competitions, and eventually, to his first Olympic Games.

There are other pathways, Hutchinson explains. He might have tried volunteering with a national governing body (NGB) for a sport. There are 50 NGBs in the United States that manage competition and training — 37 for the Olympic summer sports, eight for the winter sports, and five for Pan-American sports.

Attaching yourself to USA Wrestling, field hockey, or water polo, for example, rather than a regional team, and working your way up the ladder can open doors. You can also apply directly through the USOPC.

Previously, doctors continued to work with a specific team at the Olympics. But things have changed. Now, the USOPC creates an umbrella health system where the combined medical staff is available to any US athlete with any medical condition.

“You can’t go to the Olympic Games and say, ‘I’m a knee surgeon, so the only thing I’m going to treat is knees’. If you’re that specific, you’re not of value,” Hutchinson says.

Luckily (again), he had wider experience. As the head team physician at the University of Illinois Chicago for 30 years, he explains, “I take care of the runny noses, the earaches, the concussions. I maintain the asthma. At the Olympic Games, when I’m in the medical area, I don’t know what’s about to come through the door, and I need to be helpful for whoever walks in.”

Did You Play Varsity?

For an aspiring Olympic physician, another advantage might be a personal background in sports. Doctors who are former athletes are often given preference by the USOPC and most NGBs.

Steven Isono, MD, an orthopedic surgeon specializing in sports medicine at Stanford, was an athlete in high school and college and also a coach, participating in basketball, baseball, track and field, gymnastics, and others. Isono, who has also worked with the National Football League and National Basketball Association, says his experience studying judo got his foot in the door with Team USA. He originally began traveling with the judo team in 1990 and is now associated with several teams, including USA Swimming, women’s water polo, boxing, taekwondo, and men’s rowing.

You certainly don’t have to be a world champion, but “as a treater, I think it gives you a different perspective,” says Isono. “If you’re a swimmer and you used to swim the IM [individual medley], when you travel with the swim team, you’re used to all those things.” Personal experience with the intensity of training can also help you understand the mechanism of injury, Isono adds, which is key when establishing a diagnosis.

Regardless of their background, all Olympic-hopeful physicians must do a 2-week volunteer rotation at an Olympic Training Center, likely the main one in Colorado Springs. There is also an ancillary center in Chula Vista, California, and one for winter sports in Lake Placid, New York.

This is basically an audition, Isono recalls. Demonstrating your ability to gel with the coaches, trainers, and other medical staff as well as the athletes is key. “When you’re there, everybody’s looking at you,” he says. They’re considering, “Do we want to be traveling with you? Are you one of the kids who could play in the sandbox with the other kids?”

Are You Good With a Kitchen Knife?

“Playing in the sandbox” means being ready for anything from sniffles to sprained shoulders to closing lacerations. It also means pitching in when the team needs other types of help. In fact, “if everything is going well, the doctors have nothing to do,” says Hutchinson. “And in that case, you’re a workhorse. You’re hands now that could be helping the team in other ways.”

At the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Hutchinson recalls, COVID-19 was a major concern. The USOPC had hired local staff for their cafeteria. But when one of them began having cold symptoms, all foreign workers were asked to leave.

“So, now what happens? Well, the medical team, physical therapists, athletic trainers — we weren’t that busy,” Hutchinson says. “So, guess what? We’re chopping vegetables and helping serve the food.”

As a surgeon, Hutchinson considers himself good with a knife. When asked to chop cucumbers, he began making careful, precise slices. Then the chef returned and, slightly amused, whacked the cucumbers at high speed to finish the chopping.

In Rio, Hutchinson also found himself putting extensions on beds that were too short for the volleyball players and hanging feed buckets in stalls for the equestrian team’s horses. “Anything you can do is part of the game,” he says.

Do You Live for ‘Olympic Moments?’

And when the cauldron is lit, and it all begins? Isono and Hutchinson agree that there is nothing quite like the atmosphere of being at the Olympic Games. The energy, the sportsmanship, and the global camaraderie just don’t exist anywhere else.

“There are a few things in the world that really transcend everything,” says Isono. “Extreme competition just brings everybody together.” Even after 30 years, the patriotic feeling can take him by surprise. “When you’re in the medal ceremony and our flag goes up, it’s really moving,” he says. “I still get chills. Especially if I know the athlete that’s on the stand, it’s amazing.”

Isono has also been struck by the generosity and kindness of Olympic competitors. He remembers the debut of rock climbing as an Olympic sport at the 2020 Games. At one point, the female climbers in the medal round stood in front of the wall chatting, discussing strategy, and helping each other plan routes. “This was togetherness, community,” Isono says. “It was just rooting for competition, not necessarily the winner.” There is mutual respect, he says, between everyone from the gold medal winner down to “the last place finisher in the first heat of a race. They know you’ve worked really hard, and you’re still an Olympian for your country.”

Would You Be Honored to Just ‘Soak It All In?’

Making friends across the pond is also a goal for Benedict Ifedi, MD, who will be volunteering at his first Olympic Games in Paris. Ifedi, a family medicine and sports medicine physician with Memorial Hermann Health System in Houston, is looking forward to the cultural exchange. “I’m definitely excited to interact with people from different countries,” he says. “Learning about different cultures has just enriched my life experience. And I think it helps me connect to patients in my practice.”

Ifedi has always aspired to work with Team USA, and he applied through the USOPC 3 years after completing his fellowship, a required interval, in 2021. He then completed the 2-week rotation in Colorado Springs and was chosen from the pool of candidates.

“Just being at the Olympics, the aura of it — it’s something that I’ve only seen on TV,” says Ifedi. “So, it’s a great honor being there and just soaking it all in.”

Eager to support Team USA athletes, Ifedi says he’ll be ready for anything “to get those folks back to their prime condition.” What he will get in return, and Isono and Hutchinson agree, is experiencing the joy of success through the athletes, knowing that perhaps he played a small role in their achievement.

Ifedi is also keeping in mind what Hutchinson feels is a crucial Olympic rule: Leave your ego at home. “If you want to pat yourself on the back and take all the credit?” says Hutchinson. Don’t. “It’s the athletes who won the medals. The benefit that you get has to be living vicariously through them. If that’s in your heart, then you can be successful.”